Paderborn Abdinghof-Church

After Bishop Meinwerk had finished the work on the destroyed cathedral, he (re)founded and (re)built the Abdinghof-Abbey (St. Peter and St. Paul) in 1014, that was like the cathedral burnt down in the year 1000.
The abbey later was known for it´s library and it´s scriptorium. 1093 the abbey bought the Externsteine, that´s when the sulptures on the stones were carved. It burnt down a couple of times over the centuries, got raided during the Thirty-Years War. 1803 the last monks had to leave the abbey. 1815 the prussian armee moved into the buildings.

Mid 1860 this is a ruin, but gets rebuilt and in 1871 this is the first protestant parish church in Paderborn. Bombed and burned down in March 1945 the abbey was lost, but the church got reconstructed during the 1950s.

The westwork, we see today is a "reconstruction" of the 19th century. Archeologists proved, that the church from around 1050 had an apse in the west and probably smaller spires.