Nikolai Chapel, Chapel ruin in Mitte, Hanover, Germany

Nikolai Chapel is a roofless Gothic ruin in Hanover's Mitte, built of light grey and tan stone blocks. Two tall pointed arches with deep moulded surrounds open into a hollow interior where red brick shows on the inner walls; above rises a steep gable with a small rectangular opening and a short finial. To the right, a lower wall holds a single rectangular window, and a dark carved stone slab stands on the grass in front.

Built between 1250 and 1284 outside Hanover's walls as a leprosy chapel for the Nikolai-Stift, it was first recorded in 1284 as "capella leprosorum extra muros". A polygonal choir was added around 1325, incorporating Hanover's earliest known brickwork. Damaged in World War II bombing, the chapel was largely torn down in 1953 for a road, leaving the choir standing as a monument.

The name Nikolai Chapel is first recorded in 1323 as "capella sancti Nycolai"; mayor Christian Ulrich Grupen later suggested the dedication to Nicholas of Myra, patron saint of boatmen, because their stacking place on the Leine stood nearby. From 1859 to 1864 the new North Town congregation used the chapel until Conrad Wilhelm Hase's Christ Church was consecrated on 21 September 1864. From 1869 it was rented to Hanover's English congregation, which paid for its extension.

The ruin stands in Hanover's Mitte, in the Nordstadt area by the former Steintor, on the southern edge of the Old St. Nicholas Cemetery near Klagesmarkt. The choir was left standing as a monument when the nave was cleared in 1953 for a road, so the remains sit beside traffic rather than in a closed enclosure. The epitaphs on the grass in front can be read from the path.

The chapel's choir, dating to 1325, is considered the oldest surviving structure in Hanover. In 1953 the roughly 700-year-old chapel was largely demolished to make way for a road, leaving the choir standing as a monument. The epitaphs at the chapel remain on the site.