St. Sebastian is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

aisleless church An aisleless church () is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways on either side of the nave and separated from the nave by col ...

in the

city centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...

Neuss Neuss (; written ''Neuß'' until 1968; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It is primarily known for its ...

Nordrhein-Westfalen North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. It belongs to the Neuss

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

St. Quirinus.

History

The Sebastianuskirche was built between 1718 and 1720 by Superior '' Bernhard Schluns'' in Neuss's Altstadt. Until 1802 it belonged to an immediately neighboring

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

monastery. It served as a monastery church for the convent of the

Third Order of Franciscans The Third Order of Saint Francis, or Franciscan Tertiaries, is the third order of the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi. Francis founded the Third Order, originally called th ...

until it functioned as an auxiliary church to the Quirinus-Münster after secularisation. The adjacent monastery initially served as a factory in 1803. From 1852, it became the

Archiepiscopal In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...

Convict (''Seminarium Marianum'') and functioned as a municipal infirmary from 1873 to 1942. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the former convent buildings were completely destroyed. Only the outer walls of St. Sebastian's Church remained intact. As a result, demolition of the building was considered, but thanks to the dedicated efforts of many citizens of Neuss, this was prevented. The church was rebuilt in 1955 and 1956 without the originally adjacent convict buildings. It was not until 1967 that a new monastery was constructed according to the plans of Cologne architect Joachim Schürmann, which housed the religious community of the Eucharistines until 1994. Today, the ''Missionaries Identes'' reside there.

Equipment

The original two-nave hall church was rebuilt as a single-nave structure after the destruction of World War II. Its entrance

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

features a curved gable divided by four

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

s, with round and oval windows, as well as a late Baroque entrance portal with shallow steps. On the long side, there are six tall round-arched windows framed by colossal Ionic pilasters. The upper section is completed by a

gabled roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its roof ridge, ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The roof pitch, p ...

with a hexagonal roof turret. The interior is covered by a flat wooden ceiling and features a rectangular

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

with two columns. The furnishings come from other churches or private donations. St. Sebastian received its Baroque

high altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

from the Basilica of St. Margareta in

Düsseldorf-Gerresheim Gerresheim is one of the City of Düsseldorf, Germany's fifty quarters. Part of Borough 7, it is located in the eastern part of the municipality. Gerresheim is much older than Düsseldorf itself, having been an independent city with a rich histo ...

. Additionally, part of the interior decoration from a church demolished due to

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

mining is now housed in St. Sebastian's Church, including a

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

group on the west wall and several other statues. A resident of Neuss donated an early Baroque carved figure of St. Sebastian. The representations of

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...

and St. Quirinus are on loan from the parish of St. Quirin. On the interior wall facing the street, there is a

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Via Dolorosa, Way of Sorrows or the , are a series of fourteen images depicting Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and acc ...

from the 19th century.St. Sebastian
aus ''neuss-mitte.de'', retrieved 25 July 2021.

Building preservation

St. Sebastian's Church was added to the list of architectural monuments in Neuss on April 4, 1985.

References

{{coord, 51.1997479, 6.6892996, display=title Churches in Europe 1710s architecture Baroque architecture in North Rhine-Westphalia Baroque church buildings Neuss