Leonhardskirche

Leonhardskirche stands on Leonhardsplatz in Stuttgart’s old town, parallel to Hauptstätter Straße. The second-oldest church foundation in Stuttgart began as a chapel dedicated to Saint Leonhard in 1337. By 1466, Aberlin Jörg had expanded it into a late Gothic hall church with three equal-height aisles. A 55.5-metre tower rises beside the choir, carrying a steep spire with green patina.

Bombing in 1944 heavily damaged the building, and Rudolf Lempp rebuilt it in simplified form between 1948 and 1954. The white interior now joins a preserved left arcade with a broad space beneath a dark wooden ceiling. A restored net-rib vault survives above the choir, where three colourful stained-glass windows date from 1957. Johannes Reuchlin’s tombstone stands there, alongside an exhibition about the humanist’s life and work.

Twenty-two pointed-arch windows bring lightly tinted daylight into the nave, while the west rose window adds stronger colour. A ground-level organ built by Paul Ott in 1970 places its 58 registers close to the congregation. The choir stalls contain 57 carved oak seats, originally made for the Hospitalkirche around 1490 and 1493. Near the western entrance, a 1546 grave inscription preserves the memory of Irmela Bientz.