Welschnonnenkirche - Trier

The Welschnonnenkirche in Trier is a unique Baroque church with a rich history and special architectural features.

This church was built between 1714 and 1717 by the Augustinian choir sisters of the Congrégation Notre-Dame, also known as the "Welschnonnen" because of their French origins. The church is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.

The church is a single-nave Baroque construction with five bays and a straight, closed choir. Striking is the steep saddle roof with an elegant roof turret and a weather vane in the form of a girl with outstretched arms.

The interior houses the only completely preserved high baroque church room in Trier. Of special note is the wooden high altar with a painting of the Assumption of Mary , flanked by statues of Saints Pierre Fourier and Augustine. The nunnery, supported by columns, takes up almost the entire western half of the nave and contains the choir stalls and the historic organ. The church has the oldest playable organ in Trier , built in 1757 by Johann Philipp and Johann Heinrich Stumm. This one-manual baroque organ with eleven registers was restored to its original condition in 2007 and is regularly used for concerts.

The Welsch nuns settled in Trier in 1640 and founded a free girls' school . Their commitment to education made them the only monastic order in Trier not to be dissolved during the secularization under Napoleon.

In 1875, the sisters were expelled from Trier during the Kulturkampf and settled in Jupille, Belgium , where they founded a new convent. Today, the church is owned by the Marianische Bürgersodalität Trier of 1610. In addition to regular services, English-language masses are held there and the church serves as a venue for concerts and cultural events.

Willem Vandenameele