Beneath the towering dome, imagine the echoes of hymns resonating through the years at St. Lukas. This isn’t just any church. St. Lukas is Munich’s largest Protestant church. Nestled on the Isar’s banks, St. Lukas stands as a testament to faith and architectural grandeur.
St. Lukas’s story is relatively recent. The first Protestant groups in Munich faced suppression in the early 16th century. Bavaria was Catholic. That changed when Prince-elector Max IV Joseph married a Lutheran princess in 1799. Suddenly, there was a Protestant presence at court. Munich saw an influx of Lutherans from other German regions in the 19th century.
By 1826, about 6000 Lutherans called Munich home. They inaugurated St. Matthew, their first church, in 1833. The Nazis demolished it in 1938. It was rebuilt after World War II in a different location. St. Mark’s, the second Protestant church, opened in 1877. Munich’s Lutherans needed a third, bigger church by the late 1800s. The royal family worried about preserving the Catholic character of Munich. They gave the Lutherans land by the Isar to build St. Lukas. The cornerstone was laid on June 29, 1893. St. Lukas was consecrated on the first Advent in 1896.
Albert Schmidt designed St. Lukas. To appease the Catholic rulers, he used pre-Reformation styles. The exterior showcases Romanesque forms. Inside, early Rhenish Gothic elements define the space. It’s based on a Greek cross. A three-sided apse marks the east. The western facade is seven-sided with square towers. The dome reaches almost 64 meters. Locals call St. Lukas the Cathedral of the Munich Protestants. However, it is not a bishop’s seat.
St. Lukas once boasted stained glass windows created between 1896 and 1899. The Mayer’sche Hofkunstanstalt made them. Charles Dixon, a renowned glass painter, designed them. Sadly, air raids during World War II destroyed them. Hermann Kaspar created new chancel windows in 1946. Gustav Adolf Goldberg painted the altar. It depicts the Entombment of Christ.
The G.F. Steinmeyer & Co. built the organ in 1932. St. Lukas has two bells on loan. One was cast in 1862. It was for St. Mary’s Church in Stargard. The other was cast in 1703 for a church in Schӧnwaldau. These bells were recovered from former congregations that lost their churches.
Today, St. Lukas stands as a symbol of resilience and faith. It survived World War II without major damage. It’s the only largely preserved Protestant church from the Historicist period in Munich. The church is located on Mariannenplatz. The main entrance faces the Isar cycle path. St. Lukas hosts church music concerts and cultural events regularly. The St. Lukas gospel choir has been a Munich cultural staple since 1991. This church offers a place of peace and reflection. Its history and beauty invite all to experience its unique charm.