Iglesia de S. Juan, Parish church in Schweinfurt, Germany
St. Johannis stands on Martin-Luther-Platz north of Schweinfurt's market square. Its south side is dominated by the gable wall of a two-aisled transept in Franconian sandstone, holding the late-Romanesque Bride's Portal with its carved dragons and lions; two octagonal towers with bell-shaped caps flank the facade, and a taller square tower with a green-domed belfry rises behind. Inside, pale columns carry pointed arches and ribbed vaulting above wooden pews and a gilded altar.
St. Johannis began at the end of the 12th century as a Romanesque church; the north tower was finished in 1237 and the south Bride's Portal in 1240. In 1325 it was first documented as a parish church, and by 1360 it stood in its first form. The Reformation arrived in 1542, and after severe damage in the Second Margrave War of 1554 it was rebuilt from 1555.
The church is dedicated to both John the Evangelist and John the Baptist. In the Herrenchor hangs the Schweinfurter Konfessionsbild, the oldest confessional painting in southern Germany. The late Romanesque Brautportal on the south side, carved with dragons wrestling lions, has long been a landmark of the city.
St. Johannis stands on Martin-Luther-Platz, an elevated square just north of Schweinfurt's Marktplatz. The main entrance is the west portal; the south side holds the late-Romanesque Brautportal, whose tympanum is destroyed and whose arches show dragons fighting lions. As an active parish church, it is best visited outside service times.
The south facade's Bride's Portal, carved around 1240 by an unknown master, shows late-Romanesque foliage and dragons wrestling lions in its arch mouldings; the tympanum is lost. The figure of John the Baptist on the right dates from the 14th century, while the columns and the left figure of the Apostle John were added in neo-Gothic style by Joseph Metzger in 1891.
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