Protestant City Church, Lutheran church in Biedenkopf, Germany
Stadtkirche is the neo-Gothic hall church of Biedenkopf, built from 1888 to 1891 to Friedrich Adler's design on a terrace of the Schlossberg's south slope in the upper town. Its dark reddish-brown stone facade has paired tall arched windows with light frames, and a slender dark spire with a small round clock rises above the steep slate roof. The interior has 3 by 3 bays, round pillars and cross-ribbed vaults.
This building replaced an original Saint John Church from 1250 that had occupied the same location for centuries. The new construction followed architect Friedrich Adler's design and marked a complete transformation of the site according to neo-gothic principles.
The neo-Gothic church of 1888–1891 is not dedicated to John the Baptist; that name belonged to the medieval predecessor demolished in 1888. The Nothgotteskapelle on the north side of the choir, built in 1415 and funded by the Breidenbach family, now serves as a memorial to the dead of both world wars, with four iron tablets cast in 1921 to a design by Ludwig Blöcher.
The church stands on a terrace halfway up the southern slope of the Schlossberg, within the upper town, next to the parish house of 1717, the old town hall and the old market square with its town hall fountain. The building is oriented to the east, with the Nothgotteskapelle on the north side of the choir and the sacristy on the south side.
The oldest bell, the "Neun-Uhr-Glocke", was cast around 1250 in bronze and has medieval character; it predates the neo-Gothic church of 1888–1891 by more than six centuries. The 1485 bell by Heinrich Kannengießer of Gießen, 118 cm across, is the largest in the four-bell peal.
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