St. Maria von den Engeln, Gothic church in Brühl, Germany

St. Maria von den Engeln is a single-nave Gothic church next to Schloss Augustusburg in Brühl, built from 1491 and consecrated in December 1493. Its nave measured 148 Prussian feet long, 28.5 feet wide and 43 feet to the vault, with a small roof turret; the south side has no windows because it adjoined the Franciscan monastery. The entrance is a rusticated stone portal with a carved keystone, curved pediment and studded green metal doors.

The foundation stone was laid in 1491 under Archbishop and Elector Hermann IV of Hesse, and the church was consecrated in December 1493. It served the Franciscan Observants until 2 August 1802, when the last Mass was held before secularisation. A 1944 air mine destroyed much of the building; restoration began in 1949 and it reopened in December 1953.

The name comes from the Franciscans' founding church, Santa Maria degli Angeli, in Assisi. The last Mass was held on 2 August 1802, the Portiuncula feast, before the convent's 14 fathers and six brothers were dissolved. The church was given to the Brühl parish in 1807 as a subsidiary church.

The church stands directly beside Schloss Augustusburg, whose park and palace tours draw the crowds; the side door into the former monastery was walled up in 1863, so entry is through the west portal built in 1755 from Königswinter stone. The nave lost its north wall to an air mine in late 1944 and was rebuilt by December 1953, so expect a largely post-war interior.

A door behind the high altar led through a passage into the prince-bishop's palace; the Franciscan provincial allowed it only for the archbishop and his successors. The organ installed above the west entrance in 1633 showed King David playing the harp, flanked by music-making angels.