Dorfkirche Großschönau, Protestant church in Großschönau, Germany

The Dorfkirche Großschönau is a Baroque gallery church built in 1705 from rubble stone, with a three-eighth polygonal east end, a tall pitched roof and round-arched windows. A tower with hood, lantern and weather vane stands before the middle of the west front, whose late-18th-century portal carries a blessing Christ figure. Inside, stone piers below and bulging wooden piers above support galleries of 1775 on three sides.

A church in Großschönau was first documented in 1384 under the deanery of Zittau; a second church stood on the present site around 1500, and its baptismal font survives. The current gallery hall was built in 1705 on the foundations of that older church and restored in 1898. The west portal dates from the late 18th century.

The interior galleries display biblical narratives, with Old Testament scenes covering the south wall and New Testament depictions on the north wall, both created in 1775. These image sequences served as a visual way for the community to learn and remember religious stories.

The church stands on Theodor-Haebler-Straße in Großschönau, with the tower and west portal facing the street; the west portal from the late 18th century carries a blessing Christ figure above it, flanked by two stair towers. Inside, the organ has stood on the first gallery since 1949, when the second and third west galleries were removed. The painted parapets of the 1775 galleries run along the south and north sides.

The 1802 altar reaches almost to the ceiling and carries a Resurrection painting made by Eleazar Zeissig, called Schenau, in 1786. Between the altar table and the rear panel a gap is left open as the passage to the sacristy, and a ray glory with an inscription closes the top.