Old Parish Church, Romanesque church in Bergisch Gladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

The Old Parish Church is a plastered rubble-stone building from around 1200, consisting of a rectangular nave with a flat ceiling and a recessed triumphal arch, a choir as wide as the nave, and a squat west tower with a blunt pyramidal roof. The nave retains two original tiny round-arched windows alongside later rectangular openings, and the tower has sound arcades in its bell chamber.

The church grew from a private church at the Salhof of the Merheim counts; the counts of Berg are documented as patrons from 1233. A 9th-century wooden church and a rectangular building of 972 preceded the plastered rubble-stone structure of around 1200. A wider choir and the squat west tower were added in the first half of the 13th century, a sacristy in 1765–66; after the new parish church was built in 1864–71, the old church decayed and was restored in 1907–09, 1954–57 and 1983.

Locals call it the "Refrather Taufkirche" (baptismal church), recalling its role as the mother church of the parish before the new St. Johann Baptist was built in 1864–1871. In the choir, seven apostles and John the Baptist are painted in pairs within border frames. Beside the north portal stands a reused memorial stone with an anchor cross, datable to the 9th century.

The church stands in Alt Refrath on a walled, disused churchyard; the surrounding graves and the Willweg nearby are best reached on foot. The interior is small, so visits are short. Look for the stepped stone surround of the round-arched doorway and the twin openings of the tower before going in.

Beside the north portal stands a reused memorial stone with an anchor cross, datable to the 9th century by comparison with similar stones. Inside, a crucifix hangs on a stone cross dated 1577, originally used as a grave cross.