The "new" Temple Neuf (1874-1877) lends itself particularly well to a stylistic comparison between Germany and France, but also to the mixing of styles in Strasbourg, because of its very particular history. After the annexation of Strasbourg in 1681, Louis XIV had given the cathedral, hitherto used by the Protestants, to the Catholics. In compensation, the Protestants received the old Gothic church of the convent of the Dominicans, dating from the Middle Ages, which then took the name of "Neukirche" or "Neue Kirche" (New Church, New Temple) and assumed the role of main Protestant church. During the bombardment by the Prussian army in 1870, the building—used without interruption since then by the Protestants of the Lutheran confession of Augsburg — was heavily damaged, and the important municipal library, installed in the old choir of the church, was destroyed. Only the exterior walls and part of the vaults of the two-nave building remained. The significant destruction of the old building did not exclude its restoration, but it was an opportunity for a new beginning: the wish to revive the New Temple as a "cathedral of the Lutherans" (as they said at the time) combined with the desire for a 'explicitly Protestant liturgical space'. The trend of the time for neo-Romanic architectural forms justified the choice of this style. Accessibility

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Address
1 place du Temple Neuf, 67000 Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, Grand Est, France