Saint Vitus Church, Gothic church in Meppen, Germany

Saint Vitus Church is a three-aisled late Gothic hall church of roughly square plan in Meppen, built from 1462, with a two-bay choir closed on five sides and a south portal dated 1471. High three-part windows with fish-bladder tracery light the interior, whose cross-ribbed vaults rest on short, stout columns. The tall tower was hit by shells on 7 April 1945 and burned out; in December 1950 a folded roof by Cologne architect Dominikus Böhm was placed on the surviving stump.

A baptismal church stood on this hill in the old town around 780, under Charlemagne. A larger Romanesque building followed in 1225; the present three-aisled late Gothic hall church was built in 1462, with the two-bay choir dated 1461 and the south portal 1471. In 1870 Johann Bernhard Hensen extended the nave by one bay and added the neo-Gothic west front with three portals. On 7 April 1945 shells hit the tall tower, which burned out above; in December 1950 Dominikus Böhm placed a folded roof on the surviving stump.

The name Vitus comes from the church's patron saint. The high altar is a neo-Gothic winged altarpiece of 1895 by Osnabrück sculptor Heinrich Seling, donated by Meppen-born "petroleum king" Wilhelm Anton Riedemann. The right side altar is also by Seling, and the choir stalls and pulpit are neo-Gothic too.

The church stands on a slight rise in Meppen's old town, with the Kalvarienberg group on the church square in front of it. The south portal bears the date 1471, and the former Romanesque north portal, the "Pilgerpforte", was reopened in the early 1980s with a door by Heinrich Gerhard Bücker. Look for the folded roof that Dominikus Böhm placed on the tower stump in December 1950.

On 7 April 1945 shells hit the tall tower and its upper section burned out. In December 1950 a folded roof by Cologne architect Dominikus Böhm was placed on the surviving stump. The three bells are tuned to c', d' and e'.