St. Peter und Paul, Church building in Meissen, Germany

St. Peter und Paul is the former Franciscan monastery church on Heinrichsplatz in Meissen's old town, now used by the Stadtmuseum Meißen. The Gothic hall church of rubble stone, granite and sandstone has a steep red-tiled roof with a small ridge turret, pale roughcast walls and stone detailing. Its upper facade holds two tall pointed-arch tracery windows, and four smaller grilled windows sit at ground level around a red double door.

The church originated in the 13th century as a Franciscan monastery, establishing itself as a religious center in the Meissen region. Over the centuries, the building was expanded and modified, with architectural additions reflecting different periods of construction and use.

The church is no longer used for worship: the Franciscan convent was dissolved in 1539 during the Reformation, and the building now houses the Stadtmuseum Meißen. The museum association moved in around 1900, when the nave ceiling was lowered and a neo-Gothic staircase added. The surviving north and west cloister wings hold epitaphs and grave monuments of the Meissen nobility and wealthy burghers.

The museum entrance is reached through a pedestrian passage created in 1929 in the west wall, using the church's former portals. Inside, a neo-Gothic staircase installed around 1900 leads up to the exhibition level beneath the lowered beam ceiling. The surviving north and west wings of the cloister adjoin the nave.

The church's west wall was pierced in 1929 to create a pedestrian passage through the former portals. The choir, a 14th-century structure with a three-eighth close, was demolished in 1823 after decay, so the building now ends flat at the east.