St. Maria Lyskirchen, Cologne, Romanesque parish church in Altstadt-Süd, Germany

St. Maria Lyskirchen is the smallest of Cologne's twelve Romanesque churches, a three-aisled gallery basilica built from 1198/1200 to 1225. Its grey stone west front has a round-arched portal with a carved semicircular panel, a band reading "RHEINHOLZ" and "REFERENT", and two dark wooden doors. Inside, pointed arches on reddish-brown columns lead to a raised sanctuary with three tall stained-glass windows.

A private Marian chapel was documented here in 948, likely founded by a Lord Lisolvus, whose name became Lyskirchen. In 1067 Archbishop Anno II incorporated it into St. Georg, and the present three-aisled basilica was begun between 1198 and 1200, with the ground raised against Rhine floods, and finished around 1225. Only the north tower of the twin-tower east end was completed, probably for lack of money. The church became a parish church in 1804 after St. Georg was secularised.

The 13th-century paintings cover the nave vault, not the walls, and depict Old and New Testament scenes. The church keeps the Schiffermadonna, a wooden statue of 1420 venerated by Rhine boatmen, and a copy by Benedikt Beckenkamp of Joos van Cleve's Lamentation triptych, sold in 1812. The name Lyskirchen probably derives from a Lord Lisolvus or Lysolfus, who built the first chapel.

The church stands in Altstadt-Süd, south of Cologne's old centre and close to the Rhine, in the parish area of the former fishing village of Noithusen. The west front faces the street with its carved Romanesque portal; the entrance is through the two dark wooden doors beneath the "RHEINHOLZ" pediment. Inside, the nave leads east to the raised sanctuary and its three stained-glass windows.

The 13th-century ceiling paintings were whitewashed over and forgotten until rediscovered in 1879 during a redecoration of the interior. They were restored by 1881, then overpainted in Historicist style by Matthias Goebbels; the 19th-century layer was removed from 1934 and replaced by Anton Bardenhewer. Only the north and south tower chapels keep Goebbels's painting.