Kreuzkirche, Filial church and former cemetery church in Hackenviertel, Munich, Germany
Kreuzkirche is the late-Gothic former cemetery church of the St. Peter parish, standing at Kreuzstraße 10 in Munich's Hackenviertel. Jörg von Halsbach built it around 1485 as a three-bay hall church in plain exposed brickwork, unusually oriented to the south. A red brick tower with two clock faces and a green roof rises beside the steep red tile roof; stepped buttresses separate the tall arched windows.
In 1478 the St. Peter parish moved its cemetery into the Hackenviertel, and Jörg von Halsbach built the cemetery church there, consecrated in 1485 as Allerheiligenkirche am Kreuz. Unusually, it faces south rather than east. The tower was raised after 1506, the interior was baroquified in 1620, and the church was regothicised in 1814. Rebuilt in reduced forms in 1947–49 after World War II.
The church houses artworks spanning different periods, including a crucifix by Hans Leinberger and a painting by Hans Rottenhammer. These pieces show how religious art accumulated in this space and was revered over centuries.
The church stands at Kreuzstraße 10 in the Hackenviertel, near the Sendlinger Tor fortifications. It is a subsidiary church of the Alter Peter parish and is today served by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. The south-facing entrance lies through a north portal added in 1814, when the side entrances were walled up.
The church is oriented to the south rather than east, unusual for a cemetery church: until the 19th century other orientations were frowned upon, since Christ's return was expected from the east. Jörg von Halsbach's design also had a tower helm and four truncated gables.
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