Alte Kirche, Wellinghofen, Romanesque church in Wellinghofen, Dortmund, Germany
The Alte Kirche in Wellinghofen is a Romanesque church in Dortmund whose 12th-century nave forms the central aisle of today's building. The 14th-century conversion into a hall church left the south apse; the north apse gave way to a sacristy. A neo-Gothic choir with a 5/8 close, built 1903–1907 by Gustav Mucke, replaced the old choir. The windows, designed by Wilhelm Buschulte in 1993/94, are purely geometric with little colour.
Foundations excavated in 1977 during renovation revealed a late Carolingian hall church from the second half of the 9th century, with 65–70 cm wide wall footings and fire damage. In the 12th century a Romanesque cruciform church with three apses was built on those foundations; it served as a resting place on the pilgrimage route to Syburg. In the 14th century it was rebuilt as a hall church, and between 1903 and 1907 the neo-Gothic choir by Gustav Mucke gave it its present form.
The church is used by the Protestant Wellinghofen congregation. Oral tradition holds that it was dedicated to Saints Chrysanthus and Daria, and it stood under the patronage of the von Romberg family. A bell cast in the 13th century, considered one of Westphalia's oldest, still hangs in the tower.
The church stands in Wellinghofen, in the south of Dortmund, at the coordinates 51.47030, 7.49361. The organ gallery in the north aisle is reached through the former sacristy, which was replaced by an annex on the south side during the 1903–1907 rebuilding. Visitors should check the Protestant parish's service times before coming.
In the tower hangs a bell cast in the 13th century, still rung today and counted among the oldest bells in Westphalia. The organ holds 117 pipes from Johann Georg Alberti's 1709 instrument, built for 320 talers; 95 more pipes survive from Carl Herbst's 1858 rebuild.
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