St. Barbara, Duisburg

St. Barbara Church in Duisburg, Germany, designed by Toni Hermanns and built from 1961 to 1964, features a distinctive dragon-shaped floor plan, rough-cut stone walls, and a hyperbolic-paraboloid concrete roof. Deconsecrated in 2011, it currently awaits future use.

About this building

St. Barbara Church, located in a residential neighborhood in Duisburg, Germany, was constructed between 1961 and 1964. Designed by Toni Hermanns, the church stands out with its modern asymmetrical architecture, creating a formal contrast to the surrounding garden city-style housing.

The church boasts a dragon-shaped floor plan and a hyperbolic-paraboloid concrete roof that curves upwards above the altar, crowned with a cross. The exterior and interior walls are adorned with rough-cut stone, while a colorful stained glass strip extends between the roof and the altar wall, creating a unique play of light inside. Originally, a freestanding bell tower was planned but was added in 1990, designed by Peter Wörmann.

In 2011, the church was deconsecrated and has remained vacant since, currently lacking any plans for future use as a protected monument since 2013.

Key Features

  • Architecture
  • Interior features

Visitors information

  • Bus stop within 100m
  • Level access to the main areas
  • Parking within 250m
  • Accessible toilets in the building
  • Café within 500m
  • Wifi

Other nearby buildings

Wikimedia Commons

Church of the Saviour

The Church of the Saviour is a Gothic church that was built in the 14th century on the site of an old Romanesque church. It is the most historically and architecturally important religious building in the town of Duisburg and, together with the Willibrordi Cathedral in Wesel, is one of the most significant late Gothic religious buildings in the Lower Rhine region. In the middle of the 19th century, it was extensively revised to its original late Gothic appearance. At the end of the Second World War, Allied bombing caused severe damage to the church, destroying part of the tower and almost the entire vault. Restoration was completed in 1960, but the tower spire remained unfinished.

Wikimedia Commons/Michael Staats

Kolumbarium Duisburg

The church and community center in Duisburg, Germany, originally built in 1971, has been transformed into a columbarium and crematorium. Designed by architect Prof. Lothar Kallmeyer, the building features a sculptural form with intersecting concrete shells and retains its original materials and character.