St. Leodegar Church and Castle

General information:

Located on a hill, St. Leodegar church can be seen from far and wide. The church patron is St. Leodegar, Bishop of Autun, who died a martyr's death in Burgundy in 679. The church has belonged to the St. Trudpert monastery since 1350, so monks were appointed as pastors up until dissolution of the monastery in 1805. The current parish church was built as a Baroque church in 1730 on the remains of a former Gothic building. It was burnt at the end of the war 1945 and was restored again up until 1950.

The church's most important works of art at the time, two altar wings from the 15th Century showing the holy family and prayers to the kings, are now located in the Augustiner-Museum in Freiburg. A stone cross by Freiburg sculptor, Johann Jakob Sellinger, has been retained in front of the south side of the church.

During a renovation in the mid-1980s, the altar was redesigned by the Breisach artist Helmut Lutz. Lutz used strong iron bars to carry the crucified and holy one, to create an exciting contrast to the sculpted works made of sandstone.

Listen to the bell ringing

You can listen to the bells ringing HERE. (German / This link has not been optimised for Smartphones)

The castle

The castle of the barons of Pfirt, who ruled over Niengen from the end of the 15th Century, stands next to the church. Its current design is thanks to conversions to the castle, now owned by the von Flotow family, carried out in the 18th and 19th Centuries. A door lintel displaying the year 1548 is proof of the older parts of the building.