St. Laurentius

“A church built of red brick?” someone might ask, their voice tinged with skepticism. You might not expect such a thing, but here stands St. Laurentius, a testament to architectural innovation. Right before your eyes, in the heart of Dusseldorf’s Holthausen district, it rises with a quiet dignity. St. Laurentius wasn’t always a silent sentinel though. Built between 1975 and 1977, this modern house of worship, designed by architect Hans Schilling, bustled with the energy of the community. Its polygonal layout, crafted from striking red brick, and the unassuming flat roof crowned with a square-based bell tower, marked it as a product of its time. St. Laurentius served as a subsidiary church to St. Joseph, its doors open particularly for the students of the area. Yet, by 2005, change was in the air. The congregation of St. Joseph submitted requests to close St. Laurentius, and its doors remained open only during the summer months. This chapter of St. Laurentius’s story, however, doesn’t end in sadness, but in adaptation. The church, decommissioned in 2014, found new life as a kindergarten, its integrated chapel kept alive, a beacon of peace within the bustling young lives now filling its space.