Frauenkirche

The Frauenkirche stands directly opposite the Stadtkirche St Dionys on Esslingen's Marktplatz, and the two churches facing each other across the square are the most striking architectural feature of the town centre. The Frauenkirche is a Catholic parish church, built between 1321 and the early 15th century in the Gothic style, though never fully completed.

The interior contains several important Gothic sculptures and reliefs, including a 14th-century Pietà and decorative stone carving of high quality. While the Stadtkirche was taken over by Lutherans during the Reformation, the Frauenkirche continued as a Catholic church — an arrangement that has persisted to the present day, making the Marktplatz one of very few squares in Germany where a Lutheran and a Catholic church stand side by side.

things to do sight church
A story
Esslingen's Frauenkirche was never completed — its single tower was meant to have a spire that was never built, and the tracery windows in the west facade were filled with plain glass when funds ran out in the 15th century. The result is a Gothic church frozen in a permanent state of near-completion, which architects find more instructive than many finished buildings because the structural skeleton is visible. The church remained Catholic when the nearby Stadtkirche converted to Lutheranism, making the Marktplatz a rare square where Reformation-era religious divisions are still physically encoded in the streetscape.

Other places in Things to Do in Esslingen