Stadtkirche St. Marien, Gothic church in Homberg, Germany

Stadtkirche St. Marien stands raised above the market square in Homberg's old town, built of rough reddish-brown stone blocks. Its tall tower on the left carries an arched window, a clock face, a balustraded gallery and a domed cupola with a cross; the steep tiled roof has two small dormer windows. The interior is a three-aisled hall church whose nave vault rests on six round piers, each with four shafts.

A Frankish chapel likely stood here before 900, followed by a Romanesque church around 1000 and a Romanesque basilica in the 12th century. In the first half of the 14th century the present hall church was rebuilt in late Gothic style, and the tower was begun in 1374. In 1526 Landgrave Philipp the Magnanimous convened the Homberg Synod in this church, marking Hesse's turn to Protestantism. Imperial troops under Piccolomini blew up tower and nave in 1640; rebuilding lasted from 1645 to 1746, as a stone tablet above the gallery records.

The church is called the Reformation Church of Hesse because the Homberg Synod met here in 1526 under Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous, marking Hesse's turn to Protestantism. The choir windows installed in 1893 depict that synod. A baroque crucifix from Franconia in the north aisle shows Christ alive on the cross, a gift from a Homberg businessman.

The church stands elevated directly on the Marktplatz in the old town, so the tower and its clock face are visible from the surrounding streets. A stone tablet above the tower gallery records the rebuilding from 1645 to 1746. The nave is entered past the half-timbered house that stands in front of its lower right side.

The church is built of rough reddish-brown stone blocks, not brick. Its organ was built in 1732/33 by Johann Friedrich Schäffer of Witzenhausen, with a carved case by Joseph Dietrich Göhring crowned by gilded Régence scrollwork, hovering putti and music-making angels.