St. Peter's Church, Brick Gothic church in Old City, Germany
St. Peter's Church is a Brick Gothic hall church in Lübeck's Old City, built from the 15th century as a five-aisled structure with five bays, three apses to the east and a single tower on a wide substructure to the west. The unusually broad west front recalls preparations for a twin-tower scheme that was never built. Its red-brick walls, tall pointed windows and green-copper spire rise above the surrounding streets.
A church was first mentioned in 1170, likely a wooden structure. Between 1227 and 1250 a late Romanesque, three-aisled hall with four bays and three apses was built, 29.80 m long plus a 3 m choir and 21 m wide. Around 1290 a Gothic three-aisled hall choir followed; in the 15th century the church was enlarged to its present five-aisled Gothic brick hall form, and work on the single west tower began in 1413.
Since 1987 St. Petri has been a city church without its own congregation, used for art, science and discussion as well as experimental services. The whitewashed hall holds few fixed pieces: the altar, the baroque font donated by councillor Johann Philipp Lefèvre, a cross and the organ. Works by Arnulf Rainer, Hanna Jäger and Christian Jankowski stand in the room.
A lift has been installed in the tower since the 1930s, so the viewing level above the Old City is reached without a stair climb. The church itself is entered at street level from the square, and the Petri-Café in the building invites a stop before or after the visit.
The church was completely destroyed during wartime yet finally completed again in 1987, and received a new organ with 19 registers in 1992. This decades-long reconstruction demonstrates the determination to restore the building to working order.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,098 contributors worldwide.
