Florinskirche, Evangelical church on Florinsmarkt in Koblenz, Germany.
Florinskirche is a Romanesque church in Koblenz's old town, built around 1100 as a three-nave pillar basilica for the St. Florin collegiate foundation. Its white-plastered west front is dominated by two towers with Romanesque column biforia, 13th-century triangular gables and steep slate spires added in 1899. The large pointed-arch west window dates from the 17th century, and the Gothic apse replaced the Romanesque one in the 14th century.
The church was built around 1100 as a Romanesque three-nave pillar basilica under provost Bruno von Lauffen, later Archbishop of Trier. The collegiate foundation was secularized by the French in 1802, and the building served as a military depot. In 1818 King Friedrich Wilhelm III gave it to the Protestant congregation, and it was reconsecrated in 1820 as Koblenz's first Protestant parish church.
The church takes its name from Saint Florin, whose relics were brought here from Remüs in Switzerland between 938 and 948, after which the church was dedicated to him alone. It stands on the Florinsmarkt beside the Bürresheimer Hof, the Altes Kaufhaus and the Schöffenhaus, a group of four historic buildings. Since 2002 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley.
The west front with its two towers faces the Florinsmarkt, where the church stands with the Bürresheimer Hof, the Altes Kaufhaus and the Schöffenhaus. The west building is integrated into the nave, so the interior is entered from the market side. The south tower was rebuilt lower after the 1791 fire, and the present pointed spires date from 1899.
The church was rebuilt as a three-nave Romanesque pillar basilica around 1100 under provost Bruno von Lauffen, later Archbishop of Trier, and its east side incorporated parts of the Roman-Frankish city wall. During restoration work in 1929–1930, excavations beneath the Gothic apse uncovered the foundation of a Roman city-wall tower.
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