St.-Petri-Kirche

St. Petri in Melle gilt als erste rein evangelische Kirchengemeinde im Osnabrücker Land.

History:

• St Peter's, together with St Matthew's, embodies the coexistence and equality of the denominations in the town centre and thus the model of the Peace of Westphalia.
• In 1545, the town council professed the Augsburg Confession.
• Both denominations were permitted in the town of Melle, although the vast majority of Melle's population was Lutheran, the old church was awarded to the Catholics after the Peace of Westphalia in 1650 and the Lutherans were allowed to build a new church. After this, St. Petri became the first Protestant church in Melle (1651/52) outside the old churchyard castle.
• The reconstruction after the town fire in 1720 was only successful with generous support from the then Protestant Prince-Bishop Ernst August II (1716-28).
• The coat of arms in St. Petri belongs to the owners of the Bruche and Laer estates, the patronage for St. Petri and St. Matthäus. When the families changed denominations, the patronage seats remained in the respective other church and are still represented alternately today.

• The Catholics demanded a sound-absorbing building between the closely neighbouring churches of St. Petri (Protestant) and St. Matthäus (Catholic), as the Protestant chants were already so loud in the 17th century that the Catholics felt disturbed. The building was built at the expense of the Lutherans, but later demolished.
• Crown chandelier (1759) donated by the last executioner of the city, Georg Ludwig Lohdi.