St. Nikolai, Wooden church in Altenau, Germany.

St. Nikolai is a wooden church in Altenau, a village that is now part of Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the Harz region of Germany. The building is considered one of the largest wooden churches in the country and stands as a protected monument.

The church was built in the 17th century, when Altenau was growing as a mining town in the Harz and the community needed a larger place of worship. Using wood was a natural choice at the time, as timber was the most available building material in the area.

St. Nikolai is one of the largest wooden churches in Germany, and visitors come to see the carved details and hand-painted decorations that fill the interior. The pulpit, galleries, and ceiling paintings give a clear sense of how local craftsmen expressed their faith through woodwork.

The church sits in the center of Altenau and is easy to reach on foot from the village center. It is worth checking opening times before your visit, as access to the interior is not always guaranteed.

The church is a Fachwerk timber-frame building of spruce and oak, so its walls are held together by nailed joints rather than being assembled without metal. Its dimensions were fixed in May 1669 with master carpenter Thomas Eckhard: 80 feet long, 46 feet wide and 24 feet high to the sill beam.