Alt St. Mauritius (Cologne-Buchheim)
Romanesque cemetery chapel and surviving remnant of Buchheim's former parish church — featuring a semicircular apse from around 1200.
Alt St. Mauritius is a Romanesque cemetery chapel and the preserved portion of the former parish church of Buchheim, a village incorporated into Cologne in 1914. It stands in the cemetery on Sonderburger Straße.
Source: Wikipedia
At a Glance
- Type
- Romanesque cemetery chapel, remnant of a former parish church
- Location
- Sonderburger Straße cemetery, Mülheim district
- First mentioned
- around 1160
- Surviving structure
- dated to around 1200
- Dedicated to
- Saint Maurice
- Highlight
- Semicircular Romanesque apse with blind arcading
When French troops used the church as a warehouse in 1795, largely destroying it, the building was already over 600 years old – and as a result, it lost its parish rights, which were transferred to St. Clemens in Mülheim.
History
The church is first documented around 1160, when it served as a parish church belonging to Deutz Abbey. During the Cologne War, it was badly devastated in 1583; the subsequent reconstruction between 1586 and 1593 added two transept arms. In 1795 French troops used the building as a magazine, leaving it largely ruined. As it was no longer functional, parish rights passed to St. Clement's in Mülheim.
From Ruin to Chapel
In 1849 the ruins were rebuilt as a cemetery chapel, and the building received its present form between 1928 and 1929. After further war damage in 1943 and 1944, the chapel was restored once more between 1950 and 1952.
Architecture
The most important surviving element of the Romanesque church is its plain semicircular apse. Set on a tall plinth, it features seven shallow blind arches enclosing three small Romanesque windows — the central one now blocked. Inside, the arrangement mirrors the exterior: four slender columns on a high plinth carry delicate Late Romanesque foliage capitals.
Timeline
- um 1160First mention as a parish church of Deutz Abbey
- um 1200Construction of the surviving structure
- 1583Severe destruction during the Cologne War
- 1586–1593Reconstruction: addition of both transept arms
- 1795Used as a depot by French troops, largely destroyed
- 1849Ruin rebuilt as a cemetery chapel
- 1928–1929Remodelled to its current form
- 1943–1944Further war damage
- 1950–1952Restoration after World War II
Map
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Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-06-26