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St. Mariä Namen

A 1967/68 brick church in Cologne-Esch by Hans Schilling, where the font, altar, and tabernacle are aligned along a single axis.

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The parish was founded to serve Esch's growing population after its Romanesque predecessor church became too small. Hans Schilling designed not only the building but also the organ case installed in 1973.

At a Glance

Type
Catholic parish church
Location
Cologne-Esch, Chorweiler district
Construction
1967–1968; consecrated 21 September 1968
Architect
Hans Schilling
Material
Exposed brick masonry
Heritage status
Listed monument since 18 January 1982 (No. 923)
Name
After the feast of the Holy Name of Mary
Did you know?

The baroque high altar painting from the old St. Martin's church was long forgotten and rediscovered around 1980 in a "desolate state" in the attic of the former rectory, after which it was restored.

History

As Esch expanded in the 1960s, the old Romanesque St. Martinus church could no longer accommodate the growing congregation, so Schilling was commissioned in 1966 to design a new church, sacristy, and separate rectory. Ground was broken in April 1967, the cornerstone laid in June, and the topping-out ceremony held in September of the same year, with consecration following in September 1968. Construction defects appeared shortly after completion and took years to resolve, while vandalism damaged the windows within a few years, prompting the installation of protective grilles. Landscape architect Gottfried Kühn designed the grounds in 1970, and a cross was added to the tower in 1990.

Architecture

The church stands on slightly raised, landscaped grounds alongside other parish buildings. Its irregular polygonal floor plan tapers into a parabolic apse, flanked by a taller pentagonal bell tower and a cylindrical stair tower that barely rises above the flat-roofed brick building's eaves. The trapezoidal entrance section, like the surrounding structures, is single-storey. Inside, the exposed brick walls continue, and the floor slopes down toward the full-height chancel niche and raised altar area.

Layout and Furnishings

A low, circular baptistery adjoins the chancel to one side, while the ground floor of the pentagonal tower houses the sacrament chapel with the tabernacle on the other—placing font, altar, and tabernacle on a single line across the nave. Confessionals and a Marian chapel face each other in semicircular niches along the side walls, and an organ and choir gallery extends into the nave on the left. The neo-Gothic font and a restored Baroque high-altar painting depicting St. Martin of Tours, both salvaged from the earlier church, remain in use, alongside a Baroque polychrome Madonna statue once housed in a now-demolished wayside shrine. Walter Prinz created the altar, ambo, tabernacle stele, and sedilia in 1969, and Wilhelm Strauß designed the abstract windows between 1969 and 1971.

Organ and Bells

The organ was built in 1973 by Gebrüder Hillebrand Orgelbau to a case designed by Schilling, and restored by Orgelbau Schulte in 2014/2015. The three-bell peal was cast in 1969 by the Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock foundry.

Timeline

  1. 1966
    Architect Hans Schilling commissioned to design the new building
  2. 1967
    Groundbreaking on 9 April, foundation stone on 4 June, topping-out ceremony on 11 September
  3. 1968
    Consecration of the church on 21 September
  4. 1969
    New windows (until 1971), altar, ambo, tabernacle stele, sedilia and bells created
  5. 1970
    Outdoor area designed by landscape architect Gottfried Kühn
  6. 1973
    New organ installed by Gebrüder Hillebrand Orgelbau
  7. 1982
    Listed as a heritage monument in Cologne on 18 January
  8. 1990
    Tower cross installed and tower crown created by Walter Prinz

Map

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Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-09-01

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