Katharinenkirche

About the museum

The Katharinenkirche was the church of Lübeck's Franciscan friary, whose friars were granted land in the city around 1225. The present brick building was begun around 1300 and largely completed by the middle of the 14th century. As a mendicant order church, it was given no tower; its gable of alternating glazed bricks recalls the facades of merchants' houses.

With the Reformation, the friary was dissolved in 1531 and the Katharineum grammar school was set up in its buildings. The church itself survived but lost its role as a parish church. As early as the 19th century, the choir served at times as an exhibition space for medieval art, and some altarpieces later went to the St. Annen-Museum.

For the empty niches of the west facade, Ernst Barlach began creating ceramic figures for a "Community of Saints" in 1929, which Gerhard Marcks completed after the war. Since around 1980, the building has been used as a museum church, and today it belongs to the Lübeck Museums. Following a comprehensive restoration funded by the World Heritage program, it is open seasonally again and looked after by volunteers. On view are wall paintings, the choir stalls, numerous tomb slabs, and a painting by Jacopo Tintoretto, among other works.

Highlights

• Painting "Raising of Lazarus" by Jacopo Tintoretto
• Facade figures by Ernst Barlach and Gerhard Marcks
• More than a hundred tomb slabs, including the brass slab of Mayor Lüneburg
• Fresco of the stigmatization of St. Francis (around 1515)
• Choir stalls and triumphal cross group in the upper choir

Permanent exhibitions

• Klosterkirche im Weltkulturerbe – The church itself, with its painted decoration, tomb slabs, choir stalls, and artworks from the Middle Ages to the modern era, tells the story of the Franciscan friary.

Operated by

Die Lübecker Museen – Kulturstiftung Hansestadt Lübeck

Admission & discounts

Free admission for children and young people up to 18, school students, university students, trainees, FSJ volunteers (voluntary social year), holders of the LübeckCard and the Ehrenamtskarte (volunteer card), people with a severe disability (degree of disability 50 or higher) and their companion, and members of ICOM, the Deutscher Museumsbund, and the Museumsverband SH/HH.

Accessibility

• Partially wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: not available
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome
• Tactile models & exhibits: not available
• Sign language tours: not available
• Easy-to-read materials: not available
• Audio description: no information

Entrance with ramp; upper choir accessible only by stairs. No loaner wheelchairs, no guidance systems or hearing loops; advance notice recommended.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide

Child-friendly, easy-to-understand information about the exhibition. No strollers for loan; entrance with ramp, advance notice recommended.

Getting there & parking

The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.

Amenities & dining

• Café: not available
• Restaurant: not available

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.

Plan your visit