St. Gereon, Baroque church building in Nackenheim, Germany

St. Gereon is a Roman Catholic parish church in Nackenheim, built as a baroque hall church with a tall bell tower that rises above the village on a loess-covered limestone spur about 30 metres above the Rhine valley. Its furnishings are of great importance for regional art history, and the building is listed as a cultural monument.

Around 650 the Nackenheim manor and its chapel passed from King Sigibert III to Bishop Kunibert of Cologne; in the early 9th century the estate went to the Cologne St. Gereon monastery, which built a Romanesque church and gave it the Gereon patronage. A sarcophagus found in 1987 and now in the vestibule belongs to that church. In 1258 the Cologne holdings were sold to the Mainz St. Stephen's monastery, which from 1307, helped by Alheid von Nackenheim, built a Gothic church completed in 1341.

The church is named after Saint Gereon, a Roman martyr whose veneration runs deep in this region. Inside, you can see religious artworks and simple furnishings that reflect the Catholic life of the Rhine area.

The church stands on a loess-covered limestone spur about 30 metres above the Rhine valley, at 110 metres above sea level, so the approach from the village involves a climb. The building is a listed cultural monument of Rhineland-Palatinate. The 1987 sarcophagus holding two burials is kept in the entrance vestibule.

The church stands on a loess-covered limestone spur about 30 metres above the Rhine valley, at 110 metres above sea level, so the baroque nave and its tower are visible far across the countryside. The site continues a Frankish tradition of placing churches on rises above a stream, here the Eichelsbach.