PROTESTANT CHURCH ARCHITECTURE OF THE 16 TH-18TH CENTURIES IN EUROPE

Jan Harasimowicz

The task of presenting a comprehensive picture of Protestant ecclesiastical architecture in the 16th,
17th, and 18th centuries in the whole of Europe seems particularly complex not only for the diversity
of artistic and technological traditions informing architectural developments in various countries (this
factor being relevant to Catholic projects as well) but also because of the profound doctrinal
differences between Protestant communities which arose as a result of the Reformation and
Lutheran and Calvinist confessionalization. If one finds it difficult to identify the connection between
the churches of Saxony and Wuerttemberg, both of them Lutheran countries, what common features
would supposedly characterize the Anglican churches and those built by the French Huguenots,
Dutch Mennonites, Bohemian Brothers and Polish Brothers (Arians)? The Christian freedom
proclaimed by the Reformation warranted unlimited approaches to the creation of the place of
worship, including, on the one hand, its virtual absence in the radical stream of Anabaptism or
Spiritualism and on the other, enforcing strict rules concerning the churchs layout, architecture, and
decoration, like in the case of the communities of the Moravian Brothers in architectural matters
subjected to the supervision of the Supreme Building Council in Herrnhut.
And yet, except for the Anglican churches which appear to have more in common with the
Catholic churches of France and Italy than with the Protestant churches of Germany, Holland,
Switzerland, and Poland, certain features may be identified as common to all those structures
erected in the lands that came under the temporary or lasting influence of the Reformation. One of
these features reflected the need not only to accommodate but also to sit on permanent pegs the
entire local community. Another, equally important, was such placement of the pulpit (in Calvinist
churches) or the pulpit and altar (in Lutheran churches) which would make them visible to preferably
all community members gathered in the church. Obviously, it was easier to shape the interior with a
single liturgical dominant than with two and therefore the Calvinist churches departed from the
medieval tradition quicker and more radically than their Lutheran counterparts which for the long
time would remain informed by the idea of identifying the churchs nave and choir (presbytery) with,
respectively, the sanctum and sanctum sanctorum of the Old Testament Temple, the idea having
been reiterated in Luthers Sermon vom dreierlei guten Leben.
Through the early 17th century, Calvinist church architecture developed in two separate
modes. In the north of The Netherlands and in northern and western Switzerland, where the new
confession quickly attained the domineering status, Calvinist churches were being set up first of all in
extant medieval churches stripped of any vestiges of papal idolatry: altarpieces, pictures, and even
stained glass windows. As their interiors originally longitudinal structure was altered to transverse
arrangements focused on the pulpit, the former choir (presbytery) would be excluded from the space
of worship (Emden). In France, Poland, and Lithuania, where the Catholic Church retained its position
of influence, the Calvinist architectural tradition had to be created almost from scratch. This situation
proved conducive to experimentation referring either to early Christianity, by employing the Greek
cross layout (Oksa) or the rotunda (Lyon), or to innovative functional solutions, like the L-shaped

layout (Secemin). Often, newly built churches had a rectangular or square plan. Devoid of any
architectural detail, they appeared quite similar to secular buildings, for example the tower manor
houses typical of Central Europe.
The early Calvinist communities maintained quite lively contacts among themselves so it
seems possible that they also exchanged experiences and ideas regarding the layout and function of
the church. In the early 17th century, the aforementioned adaptive and experimental
approaches were combined in Amsterdam, one of the periods most dynamic European cities.
Already the first church newly built there, the Zuidekerk (1603-1611) by Hendrik Cornelisz de Keyzer,
employed the already known rectangular, choir-less layout with a nave and two aisles but their
transverse arrangement was new as well as the decision to leave the space in front of the centrally
placed pulpit free of pegs so that tables for the Holy Communion could be set up there. De Keyzer
later used a similar solution at the more monumental and architecturally refined Westerkerk (16201631) which was finished by Cornelius Danckerts de Ry. Another version of the transverse layout,
taking further the idea of two pretend-transepts featured at the two Amsterdam churches, appears
at the Nieuve Kerk in The Hague (1649-1656). In this work of an anonymous architect the rectangular
aisleless space has been masterfully combined with six apses to create a centrally-planned doubletrefoil layout. The same solution was repeated at the Reformed Evangelical Burgkirche in
Koenigsberg, built in 1690-1699 by Johann Arnold Nering, a Brandenburg architect of Dutch descent.
Hendrik de Keyzers stature as the great architect of Protestant churches emerges even more
clearly as his third Amsterdam church is considered. In contrast to the Zuiderkerk and Westerkerk,
with their transverse rectangular layouts, the Noordekerk (1620-1623), finished by Hendrik Staets,
features a Greek cross layout with truncated corners and its interior is dominated by four massive
load-bearing pillars. The pulpits placement by one of the pillars creates the diagonal principal axis
thus ensuring very good visibility to all those seated on the amphitheatrically arranged pegs. This
solution was repeated at the Noordekerk in Groningen (1660-1664) while the Marekerk in Leiden
(1639-1649) employs a simpler octagonal scheme with an ambulatory. A very similar layout was first
featured already in 1601-1608 in Germany in the double Wallonian-Netherlandish church in the New
Town in Hanau built for Dutch religious refugees on a plan comprising an octagon and a dodecagon
connected via towers with staircases serving both sections and a belfry.
Regular polygonal layouts and even the rotunda form were widely used in French Huguenot
churches. They did not use the transverse rectangular plan developed in Holland but instead they
accepted the traditional longitudinal arrangement, of course without the separate choir. The church
of the Huguenot community of Paris, built just outside of the citys boundaries at Charenton sur
Seine to Salomon de Brosses design (1623-1624), attained the model status and its fame would
reach far beyond France and survive the structures demolition in 1685. The church was built on
a rectangular plan with a large space in the middle dominated by the centrally placed pulpit and
surrounded by two tiers of galleries with access provided by the staircases in the corners. This
solution, inspired as the commentators emphasized by Vitruvius principles seamlessly combined
function and exquisite proportions and was admiringly if not quite correctly regarded as a true copy
of the Classical basilica with no connection to the architecture of Catholic churches. Its influence may
still be felt in extant 18th-century Swiss churches: the Temple Neuf de la Fusterie in Geneva (17071710) and Holy Ghost Church in Bern (1726-1729).
The Lutheran Churches that developed in the 16th century in the lands which continued to
be ruled by Catholic monarchs: Germany and Scandinavia and also in the Habsburgs dominion and in
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Poland, would not evolve into fully emancipated national Churches. Consequently, the challenge they
faced involved not erecting new structures but rather converting extant structures to the needs of
the new cult or, when there was no reason for the extant church to continue as the place of worship,
its demolition or adaptation to serve temporal functions. In some countries, for example in Saxony,
several relatively modern Late Gothic hall churches were still under construction when the
Reformation became victorious. Construction work (mostly at the vaults and roofs) would continue
for many years thus keeping the late medieval architectural tradition alive. As late as the mid-17th
century, the kirchish (as opposed to welsch) mode could indicate not only the prolonged life of
post-Gothic or Gothic-style forms but also the continuation of the Late Gothic type of hall church
with the polygonal choir as exemplified by the town parish church in Bckeburg (1615), Trinity
Church in Copenhagen (1637-1656), former St Michaels Church in Hamburg (1649-1651) and several
town parish churches in Prussia.
The Lutheran hall churches, adapted and newly-built alike, usually featured tiered galleries
(porkirchen). They increased seating capacity and at least partially improved the visibility of the
pulpit and altar. In the case of church interiors with the separate choir, like the town parish church in
Nidda, Hesse (1615-1618), a more unified effect would be attained by remodeling the interior to look
like an aisleless church with no separate choir. The ground for such solution had been paved by the
first Lutheran castle chapels, from the earliest one at Torgau (1544), consecrated by Luther himself,
to Stuttgart (1553-1560), Augustusburg (1568-1572) and Stettin (Szczecin; 1570-1572) to
Wilhemsburg at Schmalkalden (1585-1590). Three of those (Torgau, Augustusburg and Stettin)
represented the type of the elongated aisleless and choirless church with the altar located by the
short side and the pulpit by the long side, sometimes quite far removed from the altar (as at Torgau
and Augustusburg) or closer to it (as in Stettin). At the Stuttgart chapel, not only was the distance
between the altar and the pulpit further reduced but the interiors transverse arrangement was
adopted. Unlike the Zuiderkerk and Westerkerk in Amsterdam, it featured galleries running along the
rectangles three sides. At the Schmalkalden chapel, the pulpit was placed directly above the altar
with the organ topping the arrangement which thus became the prototype of the so-called pulpit
altar (Kanzelaltar) which would become one of the most characteristic furnishings of the Lutheran
churches in Germany.
Initially, the innovations introduced in the Stuttgart and Schmalkalden chapels had little
influence upon Lutheran ecclesiastical architecture. The first parish church employing the transverse
layout, the Church of the Saviour at Zellerfeld, would only be built in 1674-1683 probably after Dutch
models. This does not preclude the search continued in many Lutheran communities for solutions
that would successfully combine the longitudinal disposition of the church interior focused on the
altar with the transverse layouts emphasizing the pulpit, like asymmetrically adding aisles or galleries
opposite the pulpit. In a number of smaller churches, the arrangement of tiers integrated with the
pulpits placement defined a new, diagonal axis which anticipated centrally-planned schemes. In
some larger churches, like St Catherines Church in Frankfurt/Mein (1678-1680) and Holy Trinity
Church in Worms (1705-1725), the interior appeared turned by 90 degrees thus approaching the
already familiar transverse layouts. In a newly-established town, e.g. Freudenstadt in Wrtemberg,
founded for religious refugees from Austria in 1599, the Lutheran church might feature the
unconventional T-square layout (1601-1608, architect Heinrich Schickhardt) which had already
appeared in the Calvinist churches in distant Poland from the 1550s. The search for innovative spatial
solutions likewise informed the design of prestigious structures, like the Holy Trinity Church in
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Regensburg (1627-1631, architect Karl Ingen). In this case, the interior comprised a monumental hall
with galleries, covered with a wooden barrel ceiling, with the much narrower and lower choir
adjoining it on the eastern side. With its semi-circular layout and tiered galleries, the new Lutheran
church in Amsterdam (1666-1668, architect Adrian Dorsman) was very innovative and unusual, its
striking form very likely reflecting the desire of the Lutheran community in Amsterdam, the city of
freely competing confessions, to impress.
The longevity of longitudinal layouts rooted in the mediaeval tradition reflected the specific
conservatism of Lutheran communities particularly in the countries east of the Elbe: Saxony,
Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Silesia, and Poland. In the first decades of the 17th century,
eager to preserve the integrity of the sacraments and traditional rites, local Lutheran communities
were wary of any novelties, particularly those coming from major Calvinist centres. It was only the
shared trauma of the Thirty Years War that gradually erased the hostility and prejudice accumulated
during the so-called second Reformation. The religious refuges from The Netherlands and Austria
who had already roamed Europe were now joined by those from Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia and
later also from Huguenots expelled from France. The number of students from the Lutheran
countries of Central and Northern Europe arriving in The Netherlands this time spared from the
ravages of war steadily increased. Dutch universities, particularly the University of Leiden, became
true temples of learning and oases of religious freedom. Study trips to The Netherlands and France,
undertaken by those who would in the future commission the construction of new churches and
those who would design and build them, doubtless resulted in the adoption of spatial solutions
developed in these countries as exemplified by the two extant Churches of Peace in Silesia, erected
in the mid-17th century according to the provisions of the Treaty of Westphalia to the designs of the
well-travelled Albrecht von Sbisch. The original design for the Church of Peace in Jawor (1654-1655),
featuring two tiers of galleries, referred to the aforementioned Huguenot church at Charenton sur
Seine. With its layout based on the Greek cross, the Church of Peace in widnica (1657-1658)
continued the tradition inaugurated by the Noordekerk in Amsterdam and continued by Church of
Holmen in Copenhagen (1619-1641), Cathedral in Kalmar (1660-1699) and the parish church in Berlin
(1695-1703). The latter church, built for the local Calvinist community, together with the
contemporaneous Burgkirche in Knigsberg, confirm the direct import of exquisite Dutch models to
Brandenburg and Prussia.
The import of spatial solutions developed in The Netherlands, supported by the Calvinist
rulers of Brandenburg and Anthalt, was also encouraged by the profound changes in Protestant piety
in the late 17th century spurred by the Pietist movement. The ideas of renewal of religious life
advocated by Philipp Jakob Spener, August Hermann Francke and Nicolaus Ludwig Graf von
Zinzendorf helped alleviate the once so bitter disputes between Lutheranism and Calvinism and
nourished the emerging tendencies towards unification. It seems hardly accidental that the
theoretical principles of Protestant ecclesiastical architecture, in contrast to earlier and current
practice free of any particular confessional distinctions, would be formulated at this time and by a
person of unequivocally Pietist views: Leonhard Christoph Sturm (1669-1719). Sturm was born at
Aldorf as the son of the professor of mathematics at the local university. Educated first under his
fathers supervision and then at the Universities of Jena and Leipzig, he was well versed in
mathematics, philosophy, and theology. As the professor of mathematics at the Knightly Academy in
Wolfenbttel and the University of Frankfurt/Oder, commissioned by Georg Bose, a patron of the
arts in Leipzig, he spent many years working on a manuscript containing a treatise on architecture
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written by Nicolaus Goldmann, a native of Wrocaw (Breslau) in Silesia who had settled in Leiden.
Edited by Sturm, the successive editions of Goldmanns Architectura civilis soon became the most
popular instruction in the art of architecture in German.
In 1711, Sturm was appointed building director at the court of the Mecklenburg princes in
Schwerin. His first task was to issue an opinion about the newly-built St Michaels Church in
Schwerin, also known as Schelf-Kirche, and to present his conception of its interior arrangement. This
inspired him to write a treatise on Lutheran ecclesiastical architecture featuring many variants of
ground floor plans (square, oval, triangular, transverse rectangle, and T-square). It was published in
Hamburg in 1712 as Architectonisches Bedencken von Protestantischer Kleinen Kirchen Figur und
Einrichtung. Six years later, Sturm published a more extensive treatise (Vollstndige Anweisung alle
Arten von Kirchen wohl anzugeben) in Augsburg. There, he also addressed the architecture of
Catholic churches. In his view, the principal difference between the Protestant and Catholic
approaches consisted in the formers rejection of excessive decoration and splendor, the restrain
touching on as the author observed the very essence of the Protestant religion which requires
not splendor but purity.
The influence of Sturms treatises upon Protestant ecclesiastical architecture in the 18th
century can hardly be overestimated although in some opinions like his very critical view of the
Greek cross plan he remained isolated. The transverse layout, also referred to as transept layout,
which Sturm had recommended as a perfect solution, soon became immensely popular in
Brandenburg and Prussia and was employed for example in the former Berlin Cathedral (1747-1750),
several garrison churches (Berlin, Potsdam, Neuruppin) and assorted parish churches (Zossen). It also
appeared in western Germany, in the castle churches at Weilburg (1701-1713) and
Kirchheimbolanden (1745). In the 2nd half of the 18th century, as the ban on the construction of
Protestant churches had been lifted, it was also employed in Poland, for the first time in the Holy
Cross Church in Pozna (1777-1786). This type of layout was also adopted by the Moravian Brothers,
first in the prayer hall at Herrnhut (1756) which then became the model solution. The layouts
resembling the T-square plan, employed occasionally, might be regarded as variants of the
transverse layout. They could be found at the no longer extant St Peters Church in Berlin (17301733) or the Frauenkirche at Grossenhain by Dresden remodeled in 1744-1748 by Johann Georg
Schmidt.
The longitudinal aisleless layout remained widely used not so much because of Sturms
recommendation but because it was time-honoured solution made functional by the important
Lutheran invention of the Baroque period: the pulpit-altar (Kanzelaltar). Churches of this type were
built by the Lutherans and Calvinists alike throughout Germany, e.g. in Nuremberg (St Egidius
Church, 1711-1718), Erlangen (church in the New Town, 1724-1727), Berlin (Sophienkirche, 1712),
and Dresden (Three Magi in the New Town, 1732-1739; Holy Cross, 1764-1792). Occasionally, the
treatment of tiered galleries would give the church interior a more fluid, oval shape. Similar solutions
informed the few but exquisite churches erected in Greater Poland (Holy Cross in Leszno, 1711-1730)
and Silesia. In Silesia, in the late 18th century, the Calvinist Court Church in Wrocaw (1750) inspired
a series of fine Lutheran churches designed in the Neo-Classical style by Carl Gotthard Langhans,
including the churches in Wabrzych (1785), Sycw (1785), and Dzieroniw (1795). The only project
of comparable artistic merit was the remodeling of the medieval St Nicolas Church in Leipzig (17851796) by Johann Friedrich Dauthe into a symbolic palm grove referring to the community of the
righteous who would blossom like palms.
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Simultaneously with the spread of longitudinal oval layouts, centrally planned churches
became popular laid out on the Greek cross, polygonal or circular. Of these, the Greek cross plan
became most common despite the objections expressed by Leonhard Christoph Sturm. The
aforementioned St Catherines Church in Stockholm designed by French architect Jean de la Vall
became a revered model. It was copied albeit in a simplified form in the Churches of Grace in
Silesia: in Jelenia Gra (1709-1718) and Kamienna Gra (1709-1730), both erected to a design by
Martin Frantz of Tallin. They were built according to the provisions of the Treaty of Altranstdt (1707)
concluded between the Emperor Joseph I and King Charles XII of Sweden. Churches featuring the
Greek cross layout were also built in Brandenburg (Jerusalem Church in Berlin, 1726-1728; church in
Buch bei Berlin, 1731-1734), Saarland (Ludwigskirche in Saarbrcken, 1762-1775) and first of all in
northern Germany and Scandinavia, for example in the area of Hamburg (parish church in Altona,
1742-1743, Trinity Church in St Georg, 1743-1747, new St Michaels Church in Hamburg, 1751-1762)
and Stockholm (Ulrika Eleonora Church, ca 1700, Adolph Frederick Church, 1768-1774). With its
complex and finely orchestrated layout and space, the new Church of St Michael in Hamburg, the
cooperative effort of architect Johann Leonhardt Prey and mathematician Ernst Georg Sonnin), is
regarded as the most splendid church building in northern Europe. Its 131.5-metre-high tower, built
in 1777-1786, became a symbol of the Hanseatic city proud of its adherence to the pure Lutheran
doctrine.
Recommended by Sturm, churches featuring polygonal and circular layouts appeared not
only in Brandenburg (Bethlehem Church in Berlin, 1735-1737; Trinity Church in Berlin, 1737-1739;
Huguenot church in Potsdam, 1751-1752) and Anhalt (St Georges Church in Dessau, 1717), where
the Dutch influence continued to be felt, but also in Thuringia (Divine Providence Church in
Waltershausen, 1723), Hesse (St Pauls Church in Frankfurt/Mein, 1783-1833), northern Germany (St
Lamberts Church in Oldenburg, late 18th c.), and Denmark (Marble Church in Copenhagen, from
1749). They were all eclipsed by the Frauenkirche in Dresden (1726-1738), Saxon architect Georg
Bhrs masterpiece and the most splendid Protestant church of the 18th century. The successive
versions of its design show the architects consistent pursuit of spatial unity and clarity. His work was
widely admired not only for the functionality of the churchs layout and its noble architectural
expression enhanced by subtly decorative details but first of all for the innovativeness and virtuosity
of its structural solutions, first of all its monumental dome which would for years dominate over the
Saxon capital whose citizens, in contrast to their politically-motivated rulers, had no intention of
rejecting their identity defined by the Reformation.
The Frauenkirche in Dresden and the new St Michaels Church in Hamburg were the greatest
monuments of Protestant ecclesiastical architecture of the early modern era. They summed up the
long path it had traveled from the castle chapels of 16th-century Germany to Hendrik de Kayzers
Amsterdam churches, Huguenot church at Charanton sur Seine and St Catherines Church in
Stockholm to the Churches of Peace and the Churches of Grace in Silesia. And yet these splendid Late
Baroque structures would not mark the closure of the 18th century. In Warsaw, the capital of the
declining Commonwealth of the Two Nations (Poland and Lithuania), far from the main Protestant
centres, one of the most splendid Neo-Classical churches in Europe was erected in 1777-1781. It was
the Lutheran Holy Trinity Church built to a design by Szymon Bogumi Zug. The churchs cubic form
modelled after the Pantheon in Rome would be often compared to the works of the French
Revolutionary Architects. Its architectural conception was personally selected by Stanisaw August
Poniatowski, Polands last king and great patron of the arts. Like the earlier Calvinist churches at
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Secemin and Oksa and the Lutheran Holy Cross Church in Leszno, it confirmed Polands important
contribution to the development of Protestant ecclesiastical architecture in the modern era.
The overview presented above has let us formulate the projects principal research
hypothesis. The history of Protestant ecclesiastical architecture in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries
appears to attest to the density and diversification of the cultural transfer routes in modern Europe
increasing during this period as compared to the mediaeval era. The projects realised in Berlin,
Dresden, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Knigsberg or Warsaw demonstrate that the so-called younger
Europe became capable of generating innovative architectural solutions to be subsequently imitated
and elaborated. However, the current state of research concerning the subject is inadequate. The
present project has been designed to fill in the gap and illuminate the significant contribution of the
Baltic region and the lands located in the basins of the Elbe, Odra (Oder), Vistula and Niemen
(Nieman, Mermel) Rivers to the cultural heritage of Europe which has not been solely defined by the
Mediterranean.