St. Mariä Heimsuchung, Modern Catholic church in Impekoven, Germany.
St. Mariä Heimsuchung is a Catholic church in Impekoven, built in 1968/1969 to plans by Gottfried Böhm. It is a single concrete block with a round tower, tan concrete walls, a steep grey tiled roof with snow guards and a conical tower roof with a metal finial. Five narrow openings sit high on the tower, one square window lower down, and a recessed dark entrance porch lies beneath the tower.
This church was built in the post-war period using innovative concrete construction techniques that were new for religious buildings at that time. Architect Gottfried Böhm combined modern design with sacred function, creating an example of how German church architecture evolved after the war.
The parish calls the building its "Betonkirche" (concrete church). The four bronze bells, cast by Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock and consecrated on 15 December 1968, are tuned so that bells 1–4 sound the opening notes of "Freu Dich, du Himmelskönigin", bells 1–3 those of "Maria, breit den Mantel aus", and bells 2–4 the "Gloria in excelsis Deo" of the Gregorian IV. Choralmesse.
The church stands at the upper edge of Impekoven on the Vorgebirg slope, a short detour from the road between Bonn and Alfter. The recessed entrance porch lies beneath the round tower, and the interior is reached at ground level. The first service was the Christmas midnight mass on 24 December 1969.
The foundation stone was laid on 14 July 1968, only after the shell was already finished; the first service was midnight mass on 24 December 1969. The parish raised part of the cost itself: 56 residents pledged a month's income each year for ten years, and donations reached 145,000 DM by 2001 and a further 92,000 euros by 2017.
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