Maria-Magdalenen-Kapelle

The Maria-Magdalenen-Kapelle stands in Erfurt’s heart as a small Roman Catholic chapel with a long architectural history. Its first documented mention dates to the year 1277. The present chapel arose in 1341 beside a cemetery that received bodies found outside Erfurt’s city walls. The Maria Cathedral administered the chapel from 1300. The Reformation ended its religious function in 1525, while the cemetery closed and changed ownership in 1546. Catholic liturgical use returned to the chapel in 1622. It served as a subsidiary chapel of the cathedral until 1803, then belonged to the All Saints Church community. Secularisation brought major alterations late in the nineteenth century. A new façade appeared between 1884 and 1886, and restoration renewed the interior in 1992. The chapel later hosted the alternative Gallitheater. Called Theater in der Kapelle, the venue occupied the building from the late twentieth century until 2007. In 2014, the building became a columbarium. Restoration work uncovered remnants of an earlier Romanesque structure, while artist Evelyn Körber completed adaptations for the new use. Its Romanesque remnants remain part of the building.