St Thomas Church in Berlin-Kreuzberg by Silva Wischeropp

About "St Thomas Church in Berlin-Kreuzberg"

by Silva Wischeropp

About the artwork

This architectural shot was taken on 10 April 2015 in the early evening hours with the NIKON D90 (lens: SIGMA 18.0-50.0 mm f/2.8).

The St Thomas Church (also known as St Thomas Church) of the Protestant parish of St Thomas on Mariannenplatz is a neo-Romanesque church building in Berlin-Kreuzberg. It belongs to the parish of Berlin Stadtmitte.

At the time of its construction in 1869, St. Thomas was the geographical centre of the densely populated Luisenstadt district of Berlin. With around 3,000 seats, it became Berlin's largest sacred building for several decades and the St Thomas parish, with around 150,000 members, was one of the largest Protestant parishes in the world.

The name St Thomas' refers to the apostle Thomas.

The ground plan of the building is in the shape of a Latin cross. The building axis runs from south-south-west (tower front) to north-north-east (altar). A round domed tower rises above the crossing, but today it has no connection to the interior. The choir and cross arms are designed as conches. This triconch form of construction can be found in four of the twelve Romanesque basilicas in Cologne and other Romanesque buildings on the Rhine and Meuse. The use of tracery did not exist in true Romanesque architecture, but is not uncommon in neo-Romanesque buildings.

The round ground plan of the crossing tower is borrowed more from the Renaissance than from medieval Romanesque architecture. However, circumferential dwarf galleries were not uncommon on Romanesque crossing towers.

The short nave has a narrow aisle three bays long on either side, which can also be regarded as a group of "chapels". This church is therefore also a hybrid of a hall church and a side hall.

Towards Mariannenplatz, St Thomas' Church has two 48 metre high towers.