All Saints' Church, Erfurt

All Saints' Church (German: Allerheiligenkirche) in the city of Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany, is a small Roman Catholic church building dating from the 12th to 14th century. The Gothic hall church is located at the fork of Allerheiligenstraße and Marktstraße in the historical centre of Erfurt. It has an irregular floor plan and, at 53 metres (173 ft 11 in), the highest church tower in the old part of the city. Since 2007, it has been the first Roman Catholic church in central Germany to house a columbarium.

In 1117, All Saints' Church was founded by the Presbyter Erkenbert and the archbishop's viceroy Adalbert as an Augustinian canonical convent with a monastery and hospital. In 1125, the Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz confirmed the foundation in writing for the first time in a document. The church was probably consecrated in the same year. In 1222, a fire raged in the old part of the city, to which the church and the monastery largely fell victim. The associated hospital was mentioned for the last time in 1234 and was probably moved to the Reglerkirche or abolished soon afterwards. Later, the Haus zur Engelsburg stood on the site of the hospital, which became the property of university professors from the 15th century onwards. The church building destroyed in the town fire probably only had a nave in rectangular form and a west tower protruding to the south. During the reconstruction of All Saints' Church in the Gothic style, which lasted until the 14th century, the ground plan was adapted to the layout of the street. Thus, to this day, the walls of the nave do not run parallel, but begin narrowly at the west tower and widen towards the east. In addition, the nave was divided into two parts and given a roof structure with two wooden pointed barrels. This construction is still preserved today, but is hidden by a flat ceiling inserted in the 19th century. The square west tower with its pointed spire suffered frequent damage from lightning strikes. The tower and its spire had to be renewed in 1487, 1628 and 1870. During the Reformation, services were suspended in 1525, but resumed a year later in 1526. In 1724, Johann Georg Schröter built the first organ in the church, which was later replaced by an instrument made in 1806. Between 1896 and 1898, extensive reconstruction work was carried out on All Saints' Church, adding a polygonal choir with a sacristy to the east of the north part of the nave and removing a sacristy in the south part. Furthermore, the west gallery with the organ was renewed and the former three-part Baroque altar was moved to the east wall of the nave's south part. Finally, the north portal was bricked up and the south portal opened. In 1915 and 1919, the interior of the church was repainted under the direction of Prof. Hanftmann. In 1936, the congregation of All Saints' Church was absorbed into the Cathedral parish and has since served as a subsidiary church of the cathedral.

All Saints' Church is a small Roman Catholic hall church in the Gothic style. It has a total of three pointed-arched portals, of which the north portal was bricked up at the end of the 19th century. The south portal has a sandstone relief from 1370 to 1380 in the area of the tympanum, which depicts the crucifixion group. The crossbeams of the cross resemble bent branches bearing rich fruit and are probably intended to symbolise the tree of life. In a ground-level niche on the south side of the tower stands a stone vesper image (Pietà) from 1380 to 1390 showing Mary with the childlike small body of Christ. Through the main portal in the west, one first enters a groin vault from the 18th century, the tower basement. It also serves as an entrance hall and has a pointed arched passage with an iron grille to the east. In the adjoining nave, on t

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