St. Martini

St. Martini stands on a hill above the Lesum River, in the centre of Bremen’s Burglesum district. Its rectangular church building combines a preserved tower with an eighteenth-century nave.

The church first appears in records from 1235, when Lilienthal Convent received it as eternal possession. A Romanesque predecessor may have stood here since the late eighth century. Johann Dierks designed the larger nave rebuilt in 1778 and 1779, while workers reused stones from the earlier church. About two-thirds of the walls still consist of old fieldstones, alongside newer bricks. The interior preserves a late Baroque pulpit altar, an early classical gallery, and a golden halo bearing angels and JHWH. Four southern windows show the birth, baptism, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus.

The fourth organ at this location was built in 1992, with 34 registers across three manuals and pedal. A historic cemetery beside the tower preserves 70 gravestones dating from 1570 to the early twentieth century. The south side holds the stones of Anna Elisabeth and Friedrich von der Borch.