St. Gereon (Cologne-Merheim)

The church lies away from Merheim's centre amid meadows and fields, which gives it a distinctive panorama. Gravestones and monuments of the former cemetery still surround the building. Nearby stand the rectory with the pastoral office as well as the parish and youth centre.

Finds of Frankish gravestones suggest that a parish church existed in Merheim as early as the 8th century. Many surrounding villages belonged to the parish, and their inhabitants travelled to Merheim for Sunday Mass well into the 19th century – still recalled by path names such as the "Rather Kirchweg". After the old church was demolished in 1817, a new building in altered dimensions was begun around 1820, initially as a hall church. The columns that divide the interior into a nave and two aisles were added only in 1907. The tower was built in 1822, and its octagonal spire was placed on top in 1849. Because of a nearby military airfield, this tall spire was replaced by a blunt pointed roof at the start of the Second World War. The tower bears a 4.60 m green cross with a weathercock by Walter Prinz.

The high altar in the apse dates from the Baroque period (roughly 1600–1730) and has been altered many times over the centuries; the 1959 restoration aimed to recreate its original colouring as faithfully as possible. The celebration altar, made of Main sandstone, was designed by Herbert Kreutzer and installed after the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council. The church treasury includes the life-sized "Silesian Madonna" (c. 1500, a permanent loan from private owners) in the right aisle, as well as an older wooden statue of Mary from the previous church, showing her crowned with sceptre and orb. Fourteen wooden figures from 1846 to 1849 stand at the columns of the nave: the twelve apostles, the apostle Matthias and the Archangel Michael, each with their attributes – Peter, for example, with his two keys. Further works include a tower monstrance by Werner Hermeling (1847), the figure "The Listener" by Toni Zenz beside the ambo, and a chasuble of around 1520 that may originate from Cologne's St. Kolumba parish church.

In 1961 the Otto bell foundry in Bremen-Hemelingen cast five bronze bells for the church. Their diameters range from 1241 mm to 738 mm and their weights from 1125 kg to 250 kg; they are tuned to e′ – f♯′ – g♯′ – b′ – c♯″.