Parish Church of St. Johannes Nepomuk

Although built between 1721 and 1724, the Catholic parish church was only consecrated in 1778. With its pure Baroque style, the church is unique in this area.

Since the city had largely converted to Lutheranism during the 16th century, the formerly Catholic Great Church was dedicated to the new faith in 1564.

Around 100 years later, in 1660, when an inheritance dispute flared up among the Counts of Bentheim-Steinfurt, the warlike Bishop of Münster, Christoph Bernhard von Galen, decided to intervene. He ordered his troops to occupy the city and, in 1673, opened the Great Church to co-use by Catholic residents. A treaty was concluded in 1716, assuring Catholics of the Count's support for the establishment of their own church. The master builders responsible were the brothers Gottfried Laurenz Pictorius and Peter Pictorius the Younger, who were in the service of the Bishop. Together with J.C. Schlaun, they were among the Münster region's most renowned Baroque architects.

The structure is characterised by its simplicity and strictness of form. During the 19th century, the congregation grew substantially and the church was no longer able to accommodate the number of worshippers. Therefore, Hilger Hertel from Münster - a master builder with a cathedral to his credit - was appointed to extend the church to the south. In 1885, he constructed a large transept and a new altar space using the forms of Rhineland romanticism.

The interior was redesigned between 1968 and 71. The interior today is strictly delineated and closed, yet remains expressive. You are looking at the 'pilaster church' style developed in Italy. The buttresses supporting the vault are drawn into the interior of the church, thus creating narrow ancillary rooms to the sides, at a right angle to the main direction of the church. The church has the 'show side' which is so characteristic of the Baroque era.

With its strict Baroque forms, the facade is typical of the Pictorius Brothers' work. Four mighty, pillar-like wall projections frame a deepened central area, the main axis of which is emphasised by the door with its triangular gable, the framed round arch niche containing a statue of the church's patron saint, and the inscription above. The statue of St. Johannes Nepomuk in the central niche was created by the Coesfeld Rococo sculptor Cornelius Sasse in the middle of the 18th century.