St. Elisabeth, Catholic church in Ballenstedt, Germany

St. Elisabeth is the Roman Catholic church of Ballenstedt, built in 1931 to a design by the Magdeburg architect J. Arnold as a plain rendered building in the Modernist style. A massive north tower with round-arched blind arcades dominates the facade, and the south end forms a transept-like cross wing. The church stands on Quedlinburger Straße (B185), with the Riederische Grenzbach running between street and building.

Catholic life in Ballenstedt ended with the Reformation; from 1812 Duke Alexius Friedrich Christian of Anhalt-Bernburg provided a room in the Kreisamt for services by a priest from Aschersleben until 1840. A parish was founded on 27 March 1926 with Josef Egert as vicar, and services moved from a school room to a makeshift chapel in Karl Reuß's disused joinery. The church, designed by Magdeburg architect J. Arnold, was begun in 1931, blessed on 25 October 1931 and consecrated on 21 August 1933; the vicariate became a parish on 1 June 1948.

The parish is named after Saint Elisabeth, and since 1926 Catholic registers have been kept in Ballenstedt. The church is station 21 of the St. James Way through Saxony-Anhalt, between Gernrode's Stiftskirche St. Cyriakus and St. Andreas in Walbeck, so walkers pass it on their route.

The church stands on Quedlinburger Straße (B185), north of the old town's Untertor, with the Riederische Grenzbach running in a ditch between road and building. It is station 21 on the Jakobsweg through Saxony-Anhalt, between Gernrode's Stiftskirche St. Cyriakus (20) and St. Andreas in Walbeck (22). The entrance is on the north tower side.

The church is station 21 on the Jakobsweg through Saxony-Anhalt, lying between station 20, the Stiftskirche St. Cyriakus in Gernrode, and station 22, the St.-Andreas-Kirche in Walbeck. Look for the Latin inscription AD MDCCCCXXXI AEDIFIC in the tower's northwest corner, marking the year of construction.