Spitalkirche, Church in Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria, Germany

Spitalkirche Hl. Geist is a hall church with a recessed, straight-ended choir, an attached sacristy and a slender facade tower. The tower, built in 1456, is the only part visible from Dr.-Martin-Luther-Strasse, as the church forms a unit with the former hospital building. The choir dates from around 1310 and is built of sandstone.

A Marian chapel on the pilgrimage road to Rome, mentioned in 1236 outside the Staufen wall, preceded the church; around 1280 the hospital order built a hall dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit, enlarged about 1310. The tower was set on the dividing wall in 1456, and in 1537 the sacrament altar arrived. In 1771/74 the interior was remodelled in late Rococo-classicist style, with upper galleries, a frescoed ceiling vault and dormers; the choir was raised in 1789 for a larger organ.

The church belonged to the Heilig-Geist-Spital, which by 1350 held property in 94 villages and was the largest landowner in the city republic. In 1383 three further altars were consecrated here, including one for the apostles and Saints Nicholas, Catherine, Mary Magdalene, Cosmas and Damian. The hospital church served the sick, the poor and pilgrims on the road from northern Germany to Rome.

The church stands in the Spital complex by the Rothenburger Tor, but from Dr.-Martin-Luther-Straße only the six-sided tower of 1456 shows above the roofline. A gate on the north side leads into the former Spital cemetery, where an outside stair climbs to the lower gallery. The choir was raised in 1789 with a timber-framed upper storey under a hipped roof.

The slender six-sided bell tower was set in 1456 on the corner of the dividing wall between church and Pfründnerhaus, so it stands front-flush at the roof edge rather than over a west front. Its three storeys carry pointed-arch friezes and trefoil tracery, but the spire was later pinched into a Baroque hood. From the street, this tower is all a passer-by sees of the church.