Alte Kirche Leuben, Church building in Leuben district, Dresden, Germany
Alte Kirche Leuben is the surviving square, two-storey tower of the village church built in 1512, with a steep hipped roof and a tall octagonal roof turret. The nave was demolished in 1901, leaving the tower, which has a weather vane inscribed with dates from 1674 to 1875 and the name Johann Georg von Osterhausen auf Lockwitz.
A parish in Leuben was first mentioned in 1362, and the church known from images was built or fundamentally rebuilt in 1512. In 1674 Laubegast, Tolkewitz and Seidnitz were reassigned to Leuben, and the church was enlarged. After the Himmelfahrtskirche was consecrated next to it on 16 May 1901, the old church was demolished down to the tower, which residents and preservationists such as Cornelius Gurlitt saved.
The tower now belongs to the Neue Gemeinde in Leuben, and the old village churchyard and pond that once framed the building are gone, the pond filled in when the Himmelfahrtskirche was built beside it in 1899–1901. Until the end of the 19th century, cattle markets were held around the church three times a year. On the 2010 Tag des offenen Denkmals the tower's ground floor housed an exhibition on the church's history.
Only the tower of the old church remains, standing beside the Himmelfahrtskirche on Leuben's highest point; the former village pond in front was filled in around 1901. The tower is used by the Neue Gemeinde in Leuben, so access is limited to events such as the 2010 Open Monument Day exhibition on the church's history. The site is a protected cultural monument.
Only the tower survived the 1901 demolition, thanks to residents and preservationists such as Cornelius Gurlitt. A local museum was set up inside it and counted as the smallest museum in Dresden after Leuben joined the city in 1921; by 1932 its collection, including the old pulpit, spinning wheels and the night watchman's utensils, was lost.
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