Bergkirche, Heritage church building at Westerberg, Osnabrück, Germany
The Bergkirche is a church building on Westerberg in Osnabrück with walls of pale yellow limestone and red sandstone, topped by a tiled tower. The structure combines the sanctuary with community rooms, a parsonage, and a sexton's residence as one connected complex.
The Bergkirche was built as the first Evangelical Reformed church in Osnabrück, designed by Berlin architect Otto March in Neo-Romanesque style after his entry won the tender led by Cornelius Gurlitt over Karl Doflein's. The city granted the building permit on 10 June 1892, the cornerstone was laid on 8 July 1892, and the church was inaugurated on 1 November 1893; the tower followed only in 1896.
The interior painting, with floral patterns, inscriptions and the symbols of the four Evangelists, broke with Calvin's strict ban on images. The church was reopened on 22 April 2012 after almost two years of renovation, during which the painting whitewashed in the 1950s was uncovered again.
The church stands on the Westerberg hill just west of the Osnabrück Ring, next to the Stüvehaus and Stadthaus. The tower was not finished until 1896, three years after the church was inaugurated. The interior repainting uncovered in the 2012 renovation had been whitewashed over in the 1950s.
The tower holds one of the oldest bell ensembles cast by the Bochumer Verein, made in 1893 and sounding the notes g-sharp, f and d. The church survived the Second World War air raids on Osnabrück almost unscathed, unlike most of the city's churches.
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