Sacred Heart Church, Gothic Revival parish church in Lübeck's Old City, Germany.
Sacred Heart Church is a red-brick Gothic Revival church with a square tower rising from the street, topped by a steep roof and slender spire. The tower has pointed-arch windows with tracery, a band of ornamented brickwork, lancet windows, circular openings and a small clock face. A lower section with a green-roofed turret connects to the right. The church is a transept-less basilica with cross vaults and an apse; the altar stands at the west end.
Architect Arnold Güldenpfennig designed and built this Catholic church between 1888 and 1891 in Lübeck. Its construction marked the return of Catholic worship to the city after centuries of absence.
The church crypt functions as a memorial site for three Catholic priests who became known as the Lübeck martyrs during the Nazi period.
The church stands on the Parade, facing the street with its tower at the east end; the altar is at the west because the plot did not allow the usual eastward orientation. The nave is 46.5 m long and the tower reaches about 60 m to its cross. Look for the Barlach crucifix above the free-standing marble altar.
The church holds a 70-centimetre wooden figure of Mary by an unknown artist, rediscovered in the sacristy during the 1970s renovations. A medieval Pietà kept here was already in the possession of the Catholic mission in 1701. Two paintings of Saints Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier recall the Jesuit mission in Lübeck.
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