Evangelische Altstadtkirche, Protestant church in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
The Evangelische Altstadtkirche is a 1955–56 church by architect Denis Boniver, built with reddish brick panels ornamented by stone setting and divided by grey-white concrete bands. Three round-arched portals with a flight of steps open onto the forecourt. Its free-standing tower, 70 metres high and set at an angle to the nave, rises more than twice the height of the main building and is topped by three open concrete arch storeys and a copper-clad pyramid.
The original church was destroyed in 1944 and architect Denis Boniver designed a replacement. Between 1955 and 1956 the present building was constructed as a modern reconstruction after World War II.
The name Altstadtkirche (Old Town Church) recalls the village core that grew around the earlier St. George's church from around the year 1000. From the Reformation until the mid-19th century, when the first St. Augustine's Church was built, St. George's served both Catholics and Protestants as a simultaneum. The present church, rebuilt in 1955–56, keeps that old name for the Protestant main church of Gelsenkirchen.
The building is located at Am Rundhöfchen 1 and features a 70-meter tower with three open concrete arch stories. Visits are possible during service times, and the interior can often be viewed outside these times as well.
The organ, built in 2001/02 by Karl Schuke of Berlin, has 46 stops and 3341 pipes across three manuals and a pedal. Its Vox humana 8′ sits in the Positiv within its own swell box, and a mechanical/electric double registration system plus a 4000-step electronic setter drive it.
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