Galluskirche, Romanesque column basilica in Brenz an der Brenz, Sontheim an der Brenz, Germany

Galluskirche is a flat-roofed late Romanesque column basilica with three aisles and five bays, built around 1200. Each of the three aisles ends in its own apse at the east choir. The nave is separated from the narrower side aisles by five round-arched arcades on carved capitals, and a round-arched frieze runs beneath the eaves of all roofs.

Excavations in 1964/65 uncovered a three-aisled wooden church of about 650, 14 metres long and nine wide, with 20 graves; it burned down. Around 720/30 a stone church rose on Roman foundations, using Roman ruins and Opus spicatum. In 895 King Arnulf confirmed its donation to the Benedictine abbey of St. Gallen, giving it the Gallus patronym. The present column basilica was built around 1200, succeeding an unfinished pillar basilica of 1180/90.

The church is named after Saint Gallus, to whom it was dedicated after 895 when King Arnulf confirmed its donation to the Benedictine abbey of St. Gallen. The south portal's tympanum, carved around 1180/90, shows the blessing Christ between Mary and John the Baptist, while its capitals date from around 1230/40.

The church stands in Brenz an der Brenz, a district of Sontheim an der Brenz in the Heidenheim district. It is a stop on the Straße der Staufer, and since 1997 has been listed as one of its outstanding sights. The interior is entered through the south portal, whose three-quarter columns and archivolts frame a tympanum of around 1180/90.

At the springing of the left arch of the southern side apse, a Roman altar is built into the wall upside down. Its dedicatory inscription names the Gallo-Roman god Apollo Grannus, to whom the temple at nearby Faimingen was consecrated. Look for the lettering set head-down in the masonry.