Stadtkirche Neustadt in Holstein, Brick Gothic church in Neustadt in Holstein, Germany.
Stadtkirche Neustadt in Holstein is a Brick Gothic basilica dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi. It has a box choir with two bays, a three-aisled nave of three bays, and a west tower with an entrance hall. Because the nave is short and the clerestory has no windows, it is a stub or pseudo-basilica; the nave is 17.30 m high and the aisles 10.70 m.
Construction began in 1238 on the site after Count Adolph IV of Holstein vowed to build a church at the Battle of Bornhöved on 22 July 1227. The oldest part, the box-shaped chancel with Gothic painting, was started in 1238/1244. The three aisles followed in the last quarter of the 13th century, and the west tower was begun on 22 February 1334, as a Gotland limestone tablet records. Around 1350 the church had largely reached its present form.
The church keeps the patronal name of St Francis of Assisi, no longer in common use. The two brass chandeliers in the nave were a gift from the Danish king Frederick III in 1649, when the warship Frederik III was launched from a Neustadt shipyard. The pulpit of 1571 was donated by Otto von Ritzerow and his wife Druide of Gut Hasselburg.
The church stands in the town centre, a short walk from the market square. The west tower with its tower hall serves as the entrance; the box choir, the three-aisle nave and the south chapel follow inside. The 1957 uncovered wall paintings and the blind windows above the triumphal arch are best seen in daylight.
Behind the listed 1614 organ case, organ builder Rowan West installed a new instrument with about 2,000 pipes and three manuals, inaugurated on the fourth Sunday of Advent 2009. Its Brustwerk is a small pipe cabinet of five registers worked by sword levers. The case's paintwork was restored in 2017 with a federal grant of 35,000 euros.
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