St. Peter Plural

It's not that uncommon to come across a number of churches in the downtown area of a European city. But what about four churches all called St. Peter within a kilometer of each other? Strasbourg wins that prize.

First you have St.-Peter-the-Old (Église Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux), which is further divided up into St.-Peter-the-Old-Catholic and St.-Peter-the-Old-Protestant. St.-Peter-the-Old as it now stands was built in the 14th century. Along with the rest of Strasbourg, it became Protestant in 1529. When Louis XIV took over, he divided the church in two, giving the Protestants the nave and the Catholics the choir. Not satisfied, the Catholics decided to build their own church perpendicular to the Protestants. The end result is St.-Peter-the-Old-Protestant in the gothic nave and St.-Peter-the-Old-Catholic in a neo-gothic building.

Here you can kind of see how the two churches come together:



I forgot my camera the day I went into the Protestant side, so here are some pictures from the Catholics:







Next we have St.-Peter-the-Young-Protestant (Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune protestant). I stumbled onto this church one day when I saw a bunch of mature German tourists checking out this portal:



I find that old German tourists don't mess about, so if they're checking something out, it must be worth it. And they were right. St.-Peter-the-Young-Protestant would have been perfect for Matt and Newt back on study abroad because it covers three types of architecture: Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque. The oldest part of the church is the crypt which dates from the 7th century and the Irish missionaries. Then there was a 11th century Romanesque church, the best remains of which can be seen in the cloister, although one side of the cloister dates from the Gothic overhaul in the 14th century.









Last week I spent a pleasant evening with the over 50 crowd listening to a performance of Gregorian chant in this cloister.

As you probably could guess, St.-Peter-the-Young became Protestant in 1529, and then in the 17th century was divided up between the Protestants (nave) and the Catholics (choir). This made the choir screen a necessity and now is the only example of one in Alsace (apologies for the poor picture):



The Catholics redid the choir in the Baroque style. Then the now famous Silbermann organ was added in the 18th century. Helmut Wacha recorded many of his Bach recordings on this organ:



But as it is the way of things, the Catholics got tired of sharing. So a huge neo-Romanesque St.-Peter-the-Young Catholic (Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune catholique) was built in the late 19th century:



We can't forget that at this time Strasbourg was apart of the 2nd German Reich which was going through a frenzy of Gründerzeit/Historicism. St.-Peter-the-Young Catholic is right next to the neo-Classical court building and just down the street from the Place de la République with the theater, university library, and other buildings neo-something buildings dating from this German time.

With all of these St. Peters it can be a bit confusing. Last week I saw poster for an early music ensemble performance. Not being careful, I just noticed "St.-Pierre" and "protestant" and forgot to check if it was "young" or "old." I ended up at the "young" protestant at the same time as a French woman and we were both surprised to find the door was locked. We double checked the poster and saw it was in the "old protestant" not the "young protestant." She wasn't sure where it was but I knew more or less how to get there. She thought it was hilarious that she's from Alsace and works in Strasbourg but I, the American student, knew where the old St. Peter was. I thought it was hilarious that I was having a conversation successfully in French. Turns out that her son lives in the same dorm I do. Small world, even if it's big enough for four churches dedicated to that guy with his key.