Protestant Church, Protestant heritage church in Meuchen, Lützen, Germany.
The Gustav-Adolf-Gedenkkirche in Meuchen is a stone church with a steep red-tiled roof and a square tower topped by a small cross. Its rounded-arch entrance bears the inscription "SIE SOLLEN LASSEN STAHN" above the door, and a dark cross with gold trim is mounted on the facade. Inside, a central aisle of red-brown tiles leads past light gray pews to a raised chancel with an altar and a dark wooden pulpit.
Built around 1200 as a late-Romanesque church with a choir tower, Meuchen's church gained its present form in the 18th century and was remodelled in 1911/12 as a memorial church. After the Battle of Lützen on 6/16 November 1632, the body of King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden was brought here and prepared for transfer to Weißenfels; the oak urn that held the blood washed from the corpse is lost.
The name Gustav-Adolf-Gedächtniskirche dates from the 1911/12 restoration, when the church was refitted as a memorial. A bronze relief of Gustav Adolf in a limestone frame stands on the north side of the polygonal choir, designed by Paul Juckoff. A window on the north choir side shows the Swedish king's coat of arms with the inscription CUM DEO ET VIC-TRICIBUS ARMIS, made in 1908 by the Wilhelm Franke glass workshop in Naumburg.
The building sits in the center of the village and is easily reached on foot. Visitors should plan to come during regular services or special events to access the interior.
The oak urn that held soil and autumn leaves soaked with Gustav II Adolf's blood after the 1632 battle was still in the ground in 1882, set in a masonry-lined hollow beneath a stone with the Swedish coat of arms. It has since disappeared; a plaque in the entrance area recalls it.
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