St. Stephanus, Protestant church in Kleinosterhausen, Lutherstadt Eisleben, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

St. Stephanus is a single-nave church in Kleinosterhausen, Romanesque in core and reworked in Baroque style. Its east tower has a lower choir room with a plain cross vault, above which sits an octagonal bell chamber with a slate-covered welsh hood and lantern. The rectangular nave is plastered, with a saddle roof and large round-arched windows; the tower is of rough light stone with a small round opening near its top.

A first chapel was built around 1180 on the estate of the Cistercian monastery of Sittichenbach, as a daughter house of that abbey. In 1239 a larger wooden church replaced it, and around 1260 came the Romanesque stone building with a choir tower. Around 1500 the Romanesque apse was removed; in 1701 the nave was enlarged and an octagonal bell storey with a Welsh hood was set on the tower, at which time St. Stephanus became a filial church of St. Wigbert in Großosterhausen. The Baroque interior was created between 1701 and 1714, the painting was simply renewed around 1930, and the whole building was restored in 1976/77.

The name refers to Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr. The L-shaped single-tier gallery runs around the interior and swings forward balustrade-like at the west end; its flat panels carry Bible verses and floral ornament. The pulpit altar has carved side cheeks, and a laurel wreath is painted on the pulpit basket.

The church is structurally secured but rarely used, so access is not guaranteed; arrange a visit through the parish of Osterhausen in the Querfurt church district beforehand. The building stands in Kleinosterhausen, part of Lutherstadt Eisleben, with a metal fence on a low brick base running in front of it.

The two bells were cast after World War I by the Bochumer Verein für Gussstahlfabrikation in UMS ribbing and hang on straight wooden yokes, sounding the notes a′ and c″. The organ above the west gallery is a mechanical instrument by Friedrich Wilhelm Wäldner of Halle with nine stops on one manual and pedal, and two wedge bellows stand above it.