Edelhofkapelle

Edelhofkapelle stands in Ricklingen, Hanover, as the district’s oldest building and a fourteenth-century chapel. It is also known as the Marienkapelle and remains a protected monument. Its rectangular walls use broken limestone, with ashlar blocks marking the corners. A steep hipped roof carries a simple roof rider above narrow, round-arched side windows. The southern round-arched doorway leads into a pointed-arch niche.

The von Alten family built the chapel around 1340 after receiving Ricklingen lands early that century. Documents mention Edelhof Ricklingen between 1185 and 1206. A record names Theodericus de Riclinge as early as 1124, placing the site within older written history. Air raids partially destroyed the building during the Second World War. Reconstruction took place from 1963 to 1966. Before 1877, it served as a filial church of St Martin’s Church in Linden. Its filial role preceded the independent Michaelis congregation, established in 1877.

Charles Crodel designed the stained-glass windows, donated by the von Alten family in 1965. The organ came from Maria-Magdalenen-Kirche after that church was decommissioned in 2009. Schmidt & Thiemann built it in 1962, giving seven stops to one manual and one pedal through mechanical and register action. The chapel forms part of Edelhof, Hanover’s only nearly completely preserved manor complex. Weddings, baptisms, special services, and concerts take place within its walls.