Überwasserkirche, Gothic parish church in Münster-Altstadt, Germany
Überwasserkirche is a Gothic hall church of light tan stone blocks, with a steep red tile roof and a 64.5-metre square tower topped by an openwork spire. Tall pointed windows with dark tracery and buttresses line the side wall, and a small round-arched door sits near ground level. The tower carries a clock face and tiers of pointed-arch louvred openings.
The first church, dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, was consecrated on 29 December 1040 in the presence of King Heinrich III and twelve bishops. It burned down in 1071; a replacement was damaged in 1121. The present hall church was begun in 1340, as an inscription over the west portal records, and its tower was built from 1363 into the early 15th century. The spire was destroyed during the Anabaptist rebellion of 1534/35 and again by a storm in 1704.
The name means "beyond the water", as the church lies across the Aa from St. Paul's Cathedral. Its women's foundation, founded by Bishop Hermann I, was led by an abbess of high nobility until 1460; the first was Hermann's sister Bertheid. The foundation's wealth seeded the seminary that became the University of Münster, whose seal still shows the "liebe Frau von Überwasser".
The church stands west of the cathedral, across the Aa river, in Münster's western inner city. It was closed for restoration from 11 January to 11 November 2016. Inside, the main organ was built in 1972 by Seifert of Kevelaer, and a smaller choir organ followed in 1985 from Oberlinger.
In 1941, Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen delivered a bold sermon here against the Nazi regime titled 'We are the anvil, not the hammer.' These words reveal the church's courage during a time of severe oppression.
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