Kollegienkirche, Former university church in Jena, Germany
The Kollegienkirche was a Gothic church in Jena built with a single side aisle on the north side and a three-part choir in the east. The building served as a central gathering place for scholars and students of the university over time.
The building began as a Dominican monastery church in 1286, founded by brothers Albert and Hermann von Lobdeburg. It was converted into the university church for the University of Jena in the 16th century.
The church held many grave plates and epitaphs, mostly from the 17th and 18th centuries, commemorating university professors. These monuments showed how closely the building was linked to the academic community of the city.
The building cannot be visited today as the church was demolished in 1947 and only its history remains at this location. Visitors can still walk past the site in central Jena and learn about the place's past from nearby information sources.
The building was demolished in 1947 under Soviet occupation after sustaining severe damage from an air raid in March 1945, marking the tragic intersection of academic history and World War II consequences. This made the church a significant but vanished part of Jena's historical record.
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