Attention: Be careful at night that you do not meet the white woman. She wanders around between the church and the castle with a large bunch of keys.
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The first church was built in 1321. The current church building dates from 1696. Next to the church is the parish house and one of the two church kindergartens. In 1544, the Bentheim parish initially became Evangelical Lutheran. With the adoption of the Heidelberg Catechism in 1588, it became Evangelical Reformed. The Reformed Church is characterized by a presbyterial-synodal church order that promotes the entire community life. The parish belongs to the Evangelical Reformed State Church.
Year of construction: 1696 on the site of a pre-Reformation church from 1321. Remains of the old church have been preserved in the Gothic room and the (now empty) crypt of the Counts of Bentheim below. (Entrance between the tombs on the east side of the church).
Architectural style: Baroque (very simple); Reformed preaching church with the pulpit as the centerpiece and below it the simple communion table and the baptismal font (no cross, no pictures). The arrangement of the benches shows that the congregation gathers around the word of the sermon (pulpit) and the communion (table) during the service.
Pulpit: sandstone - coat of arms of Count Ernst-Wilhelm (1643-1693-EWB-), beautiful brass book shelf.
Baptismal font: inscription in Latin (partly abbreviated). Translation: `Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.` (John 3:5).
The baptismal font dates from the middle of the 17th century and used to stand in the church of the Frenswegen monastery near Nordhorn. It was loaned to this church by the Prince of Bentheim and Steinfurt in 1985.
Prince's seat: opposite the pulpit on the north side. Seat of the counts (now princes) of Bentheim and Steinfurt. Coats of arms of the counts of Bentheim and the Etzbach and Hane families. Redesigned in 1912.
Organ: Third organ in this church. Built by the Rohlfing company, Osnabrück, in 1887.