St. Antonius

How quickly things change. What we see before us, the elegant St. Antonius Church, wasn’t always a fixture of Rheinau. Imagine a time before this modern marvel, back to the late 19th century. A new community was forming in Rheinau, and its Catholic residents, while technically belonging to Seckenheim parish, found their spiritual needs met by priests from Neckarau. The yearning for a local place of worship led to the erection of a simple wooden structure in 1899, a humble “emergency church” dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua. It was a testament to their faith, pieced together with salvaged treasures – an altar and pulpit from the Augustinian nuns, an organ from St. Remigius in Heuweiler, a tabernacle from Neustadt im Schwarzwald. This temporary haven, however, stood for over half a century, weathering two world wars and witnessing Rheinau’s growth. Even as it achieved independent parish status in 1948, the dream of a proper church seemed distant. But the spirit of the parishioners persevered, and in 1956, construction began on the new St. Antonius Church. The wooden sanctuary made way for a modern edifice designed by Hans Rolli and Heinz Heß, its parabolic form a stark contrast to the traditional rectangular churches of the time. The soul of the old church lived on, though, its legacy echoing in the heart of the new St. Antonius.