Stadtkirche, Lutheran church at the southern corner of the marketplace in Freudenstadt, Germany.
Stadtkirche is a Protestant church at the southern corner of Freudenstadt's market square, built of red sandstone in an L-shaped plan. Its two naves meet at a right angle, with the pulpit and altar placed at the inner corner. Each nave has a tower about 50 meters high: the eastern bell tower on the south nave and the northern clock tower on the west nave. The towers carry green copper domes and crosses, and the taller clock tower has gold clock faces.
Duke Frederick I of Württemberg commissioned the church's construction in 1601 to serve as a spiritual center for Protestant refugees fleeing persecution in Inner Austria. The building's creation was intertwined with the founding of Freudenstadt itself, reflecting the religious upheaval of that era.
The two naves are still called the women's nave and the men's nave, recalling Duke Friedrich I's order that the sexes sit apart during services, a custom kept until the 19th century. The pulpit and altar stand at the inner corner where the wings meet, visible from both naves, though the two congregations could not see each other.
The church stands in the southern corner of Freudenstadt's market square, where the arcades of the square continue along its walls. The altar area faces southwest rather than east, so the two naves meet at an angle; the main entrance is the Prince's Portal beneath the clock tower. Six buttresses added in 1670 brace the west and south sides.
Stadtkirche Freudenstadt shares its status as a from-the-start angle church in Germany only with St. Concordia in Ruhla, Thuringia. The L-shaped plan was chosen because the geometric street grid left no room for a large church in the centre without blocking a street. The altar stands at the inner corner of the two naves, in the southwest rather than the east.
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