St Bartholomew's Church
The mountain Church of St Bartholomew (Bergkirche St. Bartholomäus) is an 11th-century church with predominant Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles in the fairy-tale-like village of Blankenburg (Harz).
About this building
It was founded in the 11th century as a small parish church. In 1252, it was transformed into a monastery church, serving two monasteries: secular canons and Cistercian nuns. In this period, the choir was extended in the Gothic style and two side chapels were built. St. Bartholomew's Church became a parish church again in 1532, after the abolition of the nunnery during the Reformation. The church's importance began to decline in the 18th century, after the construction of St. Catherine's Church.
Several Blankenburg-Regenstein counts are buried here. The organ from 1932 by organ builder Furtwängler & Hammer is considered one of the most important in the Harz Mountains region.
