Heilig-Kreuz-Münster Schwäbisch Gmünd

Beautiful Gothic building. A hall church without a tower. The one next door serves as a campanile and is still in the Romanesque style. An architectural oddity in southern Germany.

The Heilig-Kreuz-Münster (collegiate and collegiate church of Our Lady from 1761 to 1803; colloquially called Gmünder Münster) in Schwäbisch Gmünd is a Gothic church building with a hall ambulatory built from around 1320 as a town parish church. The Minster is significant in terms of art history as the original work of the Parler master builder family and as the first large hall church in southern Germany. The nave was completed around 1341. After the towers collapsed, it took until 1521 to complete the complete hall church again.

From the beginning, the patronage alternated between Our Lady and Holy Cross. In 1926 Bishop Paul Wilhelm von Keppler raised the Gmünd Minster, as it was colloquially known in southern Germany because of its size since it was built, to the Minster of the Holy Cross. This step fixed the patronage of Holy Cross. As a result of the renaming, the surrounding church square was also renamed Münsterplatz.

Today, the Münster is the parish church of the Catholic Heilig-Kreuz-Münstergemeinde and its parish, the Italian parish of San Giovanni Bosco, and the main church of the Schwäbisch Gmünd-Mitte pastoral unit.

more: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heilig-Kreuz-M%C3%BCnster_(Schw%C3%A4bisch_Gm%C3%BCnd)

The Holy Cross Minster in Schwäbisch Gmünd is a Gothic church building with a hall choir that was built around 1320 as a town parish church. The cathedral is important in terms of art history as the original work of the Parler family of builders and as the first large hall church in southern Germany.
Source: Wikipedia