Maria Rosenkranzkönigin, Catholic church in Gerolzhofen, Germany.
Maria Rosenkranzkönigin is a three-aisled hall church with a two-bay choir and two late-Gothic flank towers topped by octagonal spires. The nave's eight massive pillars carry a parallel-rib vault, while the side aisles have cross vaults. The west facade, added around 1900, has two low stair towers and a four-light tracery window.
A wooden church stood here from the 10th century; around 1003 it was replaced by a Romanesque hall church dedicated to St. Regiswindis, whose foundations were uncovered in 20th-century excavations. That building was destroyed in the 1390s during the Franconian Town War, when Prince-Bishop Gerhard von Schwarzburg besieged Gerolzhofen. Reconstruction began after 1400 with the Gothic choir; the nave was started on 15 June 1436 and the church was consecrated in 1479 by Prince-Bishop Rudolf von Scherenberg.
The church is also called Steigerwalddom, and its full historical title was St. Maria de Rosario und St. Regiswindis, recalling the 9th-century saint to whom the earlier Romanesque church was dedicated. Its feast day is the Rosary Feast on 7 October. The parish belongs to the Pfarreiengemeinschaft St. Franziskus am Steigerwald in the Diocese of Würzburg.
Visitors can enter the church during opening hours to explore its architecture and religious artworks. It is recommended to dress appropriately and behave respectfully, especially when services are taking place.
The master builder of the 15th-century church left his mark inside the vault: a self-portrait carved into one of the corbels. Literature has repeatedly proposed Wolfram von Königsberg, documented at Würzburg Cathedral's cloister in 1424, though the builder's name is not certain.
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