St. Gallus-Kirche

In 1144, Emperor Conrad III confirmed the ownership of St. Gallus-Kirche by Vilich Abbey. This tells us a church existed here in Küdinghoven long before this date. Look up at the lower sections of the church tower. These basalt stones date back to the 12th century. Originally, this was a “Chorturm,” a tower with a choir area and apse attached. It was part of a group of similar towers connected to Vilich Abbey. A small nave extended westward from this original structure. Around 1680, the church’s dedication shifted. It changed from the Theban Martyrs to St. Gallus. By the late 18th century, the building was in poor condition. Vilich Abbey planned a complete rebuild. However, secularization in 1803 halted these plans. The last priest appointed to St. Gallus by the abbey was in 1795. The foundation stone for the new St. Gallus-Kirche was finally laid on June 13, 1843. The design, by Christoph Hehne, was reviewed by the renowned Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Because expansion westward was impossible, the new church was built east of the old tower. This effectively transformed the tower from an east tower to a west tower. The new church, a classicist hall structure, was consecrated on October 19, 1845. Later, in 1897, the top of the tower was removed and replaced with the neo-Romanesque bell tower you see today, made of tuff stone. One of the original church portals was closed and adorned with a cross by Karl Schollmayer. This cross, interestingly, hung in the Bonn district court’s courtroom from 1950. Inside St. Gallus-Kirche, you’ll find a Klais organ from 1981, with two manuals and 25 registers. The four bells in the tower have their own story too. The oldest, the Gallus bell, was cast in 1673 by Johannes Bourlet. A larger bell from the same caster was likely destroyed in World War I. Three large iron bells were added in 1922, one of which bears the inscription of the lost 1673 bell.