Kapernaumkirche, Lutheran church in Horn, Hamburg, Germany
The Kapernaumkirche is a modernist church in the Horn district of Hamburg, designed by architect Otto Kindt and completed in 1961, with a freestanding bell tower that rises clearly above the surrounding rooftops. The original complex was built as a group of related structures, bringing together a sanctuary, a community hall, two parsonages, and a kindergarten on the same grounds.
The Kapernaumkirche was built between 1958 and 1961 to designs by Otto Kindt, one of several new churches in the rapidly growing Horn district. The last service was held on 26 December 2002; the congregation closed the church in 2004 and sold part of the site for housing and a retirement home. In November 2012 the building was sold to the Islamic centre Al-Nour, which reopened it as a mosque in October 2018.
The name Kapernaum refers to the biblical town on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus taught and healed. The Islamic association Al-Nour, founded in 1993, had previously prayed in a disused underground car park in St. Georg before buying the church in 2012. It states it has around 600 members and visitors from over 30 nations, and it is a member of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany.
The building is easy to spot from the street and can be reached on foot or by public transport from central Horn. Since it now functions as a mosque, it is worth checking opening times and any visitor guidelines before you arrive.
The mosque reopened in autumn 2018, not 2012, when the building was bought; it was the first EKD church and the second in Hamburg converted into a mosque. In summer 2015 the golden tower cross was replaced by a golden Arabic "Allah" script lit by a spotlight, and the former belfry is illuminated in green.
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