St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Wissembourg, Gothic church in Wissembourg, France.
St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Wissembourg is a Gothic structure measuring 60 meters long and 22 meters wide. The building retains a square tower from the original Benedictine abbey and displays typical Gothic architectural features from that period.
Founded around 660 by Austrasian nobles on an island in the Lauter, the Benedictine abbey was already buying shares in the Vic-sur-Seille saltworks for 500 solidus in 682. Abbot Edelin rebuilt the church in Gothic style from 1262, starting with the chevet; the main consecration took place in 1289. The monastery became a collegiate foundation in 1524, and the church was made the parish church of Wissembourg under Napoleon's concordat of 1801.
The 14th-century fresco of Saint Christopher on the east wall of the south transept is 11.50 metres tall, the largest such depiction in France. It was fully uncovered again in 1967. Other 14th-century frescoes survive in the transept, and a late Gothic Holy Sepulchre stands in the south aisle.
The main entrance opens through the south side aisle, where three bays form a porch. The church is a stop on the Route Romane d'Alsace, and the Romanesque bell tower with its 1075 building inscription stands off the axis of the nave. Look for the 1766 Louis Dubois organ, restored 2010–2012, tuned three semitones lower than usual.
The wheel chandelier that made Wissembourg famous was a six-metre-wide crown of five stacked rings decorated with towers and gates, given by Abbot Samuel in 1070 to represent the Heavenly Jerusalem. Destroyed in 1793, it survives only as a scaled-down wooden copy in the town museum.
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