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Origin and history

The Protestant church Saint Martin de Barr, located on Rue de l'Eglise in the Lower Rhine, is a monument dating back to the second half of the 12th century. From the original Romanesque building, dedicated to Saint Martin de Tours, remains mainly the choir tower, richly decorated with figurative friezes, including a representation of the saint. This tower, dated from the last quarter of the 12th century, was raised from a Gothic floor in the late Middle Ages, between the 15th and 16th centuries. The Romanesque nave, transformed after the introduction of the Reformation in 1568, was gradually modified (reshuffled in 1569, 1661 and 1754) before being replaced in 1850-1852 by a neo-classical building designed by architect Antoine Ringeisen.

The adoption of the Lutheran cult around 1540-1545 marked a turning point in the history of the church, which became a place of Protestant worship after a period of denominational mix (1685-1828). The destruction of the nave and the Catholic choir in 1850 allowed the construction of the present building, inaugurated in 1852. The tower, classified as a historic monument in 1935, houses funerary monuments and preserves traces of successive transformations, including the partial integration of an organ by Johann Andreas Silbermann (replaced in the 19th century by Joseph Stiehr). This organ, unsuitable for the acoustics of the new building, was partly reused in Saint-Arbogast church in Saint Peter.

Today's architecture thus blends Romanesque elements (round the 12th century), Gothics (upper floor) and neo-classicals (nef of the 19th century), reflecting the religious and artistic evolutions of Alsace. The tower, with its carved consoles, remains an exceptional testimony of Alsatian Romanesque art, while the nave illustrates the influence of Protestant neo-classicism in the mid-19th century. The west gate and a chain of angle bear the date of 1850, recalling the major reconstruction of this period.

The site, owned by the municipality of Barr, is today an active place of worship of the Protestant Church of the Confession of Augsburg of Alsace and Lorraine. Its history reflects the tensions and adaptations associated with denominational changes in Alsace, as well as the heritage importance of religious buildings in this border region, marked by Germanic and French cultural influences.

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