Holy Cross Minster, Catholic church in Rottweil, Germany

Holy Cross Minster is the Catholic main church of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg. Its tower, with four storeys from the Romanesque–early Gothic transition, carries a late Gothic spire that has been crooked since a fire in 1696. The nave is a late Gothic pseudo-basilica with Swabian set-back buttresses, a 5/8 choir, and a Romanesque west portal under a 19th-century porch.

Built in the 13th century as a late Romanesque church, it gained a new High Gothic choir with a 5/8 close around 1400. The late Gothic nave, a pseudo-basilica with Swabian set-back buttresses, was only completed in the 16th century. From the original building remain the lower tower storeys, two Early Gothic arches in the nave by the tower, and the Romanesque west portal. Around 1840 Carl Alexander Heideloff had the church radically regothicised, removing the Baroque furnishings.

The minster has been Rottweil's main Catholic parish church since the early 15th century; before that it was a branch of St. Pelagius in the Altstadt. The carved bench ends of the choir stalls date largely from the 18th century and carry references to the Swabian Fasnet carnival. Guild lanterns kept in the church are still carried in the monthly procession and at Corpus Christi.

The main entrance is on the west side of the building, facing the old town, and is easy to reach on foot from the town center. Religious services may limit access at certain times of day, so it is worth planning your visit outside of those hours.

The tower's overlong late Gothic spire has leaned since a fire in 1696, and it lost its sharp point after a lightning strike in the 19th century, when carpenters cut steps into the copper and sawed off the burning tip together with the cross. The four lower tower storeys survive from the 13th-century Romanesque building.