St. Martin, Gothic church in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany.
St. Martin is a Gothic church with a three-aisled hall structure and an octagonal spire tower piercing through the southern aisle at its midpoint. The interior displays a clear architectural arrangement typical of Gothic church design in this region.
A church existed here by the 11th century, when Archbishop Willigis gave it to the St. Victor monastery in Mainz. Of the Romanesque building from the first half of the 12th century, the tower survived and was kept when the present late-Gothic hall church was begun in 1508. Swedish troops burned the church in 1633 or 1635 during the Thirty Years' War; after the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 it was rebuilt simply, with a flat ceiling instead of vaults. The Gothic appearance was restored in 1893/94 under Ludwig Becker of Mainz.
The high altar's Gothic Revival shrine holds six statues: Barbara, John the Baptist, Gregory and Boniface date to around 1500, Catherine to around 1520, and Benedict was added in the 19th century. The Marian altar was made around 1500 for the village church of Gernewitz in Thuringia and heavily restored in the 19th century.
St. Martin stands in the east of the old village of Oestrich, on a paved surface beside the former churchyard. The south porch dates to 1508 and the north porch to 1893/94, so enter from the side facing the street. It is a former parish church, now a branch church of St. Peter und Paul in Eltville within the Diocese of Limburg.
The tower survived from the Romanesque church of the first half of the 12th century and was built into the late-Gothic structure begun in 1508, much as at St. Vincentius in Hattenheim. Foundations of the Romanesque nave were found under the floor during restorations in 1964 and 1994/95.
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