St. Paulus (Trier)

St. Paul
Denomination :	Roman Catholic
Patronage :	Paul of Tarsus
Consecration year :	1907
Pastor :	Dr. Hans Günther Ullrich, parish administrator (until profanation)
Parish :	Liebfrauen Trier
Address:	Paulusplatz 5

49.758108 6.63514Coordinates: 49 ° 45 ′ 29.2 " N , 6 ° 38 ′ 6.5" E

The Catholic Church of St. Paul is a former church in Trier in the Mitte district on Paulusplatz .

History and architecture

The building goes back to a previous building, which was not far from the current location on Irminenfreihof north of St. Irminen . In 1790 the church was closed because it was in disrepair and after the secularization in 1803 the church of the nearby monastery became a new parish church until the new building took place.

The church was built between 1905 and 1907 in the neo-Romanesque style . The stately corner tower of the building designed as a transept basilica is characteristic of the cityscape . The architect was Wilhelm Schmitz .

On March 25, 2016 there was a rockfall on the church, so it had to be temporarily secured. Fortunately, nobody was injured by the part of the masonry falling from a height of 40 m. The damaged area could be repaired with a crane. How the rockfall came about is unclear, as no traces of erosion were found on the building.

Since the merger of the previous parishes of Liebfrauen and St. Laurentius, St. Agritius, St. Antonius, St. Gangolf and St. Paulus to form the new parish of Liebfrauen in December 2000, the church has belonged to this parish. On November 5, 2017, St. Paulus was profaned because of the large number of churches in the city center of Trier and the sharp decline in the number of church attendants . Students at Trier University of Applied Sciences had previously developed concepts for how they could be used as a library or even a casino . Most recently, the church interior housed the interactive exhibition Dialogue in the Dark , which could be seen until the end of 2019. At the same time, the property with the church, rectory and parsonage was put up for sale.

Furnishing

Inside the church, in close proximity to the altar, was the grave of Hieronymus Jaegen, which the believers could reach through a side entrance. After the profanation, Jaegen was reburied in the St. Gangolf church at the beginning of 2018 .

Not much has been preserved of the original historicist furnishings of the church since it was renovated in the 1960s. In the place of the high altar there is a crucifixion group that used to stand at St. Martin's Abbey . The sculptures from 1498 were moved inside the church to protect them from weathering, and copies were made at the original location.