Priceless Gothic High Altar of St. Nicholas in Aachen Destroyed

Now the Party is Over

The good God had recently decided to take a church, which had been recently recycled as a Party-Hall, out of circulation.

The Destroyed high altar in the Aachen City Church from
a press photo of the Diocese.

[kreuz.net, Aachen, Germany]  In the night at the coming new year, a heavy fire in the gothic, medieval church St. Nicholas in Aachen, made its home.

The former cloister church has an apse which is fourteen meters high which is supported by twelve powerful pillars.

The  priceless high altar with three paintings from the Rubens school, made for a real attention grabber.

The church pews were removed by the Dicoese of Aachen in 2002.

The space has been being used since by the Evangelical Communion and the Catholic Church and also for a so-called "City Pastoral".

The new years fire destroyed the 17th Century high altar completely.

The three altar paintings were a total loss.

The gothic high altar and the old lead glass winders were severely damaged.

The spreading of the fire to the roof was prevented by the fire department.

A destroyed window of the church led the police to suspect that the fire had been caused by a Silvesterrakete.

As recently as 29 October, the Bishop Heinrich Mussinghof of Aachen had celebrated his seventieth birthday.

The smoking feast was organized by a caterer and collected the Old Liberal Nomenklatura of the Diocese from hither and yon.

The Old Liberal Cardinal Lehmann of Mainz held a gala talk.

Also present were the president of the German Bishop's conference and the Old Liberal Archbishop of Freiburg, Msgr Robert Zollitsch.

Translated from German, here at kreuz.net...