Church of the Holy Spirit (Heiliggeistkirche)

The Church of the Holy Spirit (Heiliggeistkirche) stands in the middle of the Marktplatz in Heidelberg's Old Town, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Construction of the Late Gothic hall church ran from 1398 to 1515, and it served the Electors Palatine as a burial church; the Palatine tombs were destroyed in the wars of the late 17th century. The building has a three-aisled hall interior with tall pillars and a tower topped by a Baroque dome added in 1710 after the earlier tower was ruined. Its history is closely tied to learning. In the 16th and early 17th centuries the galleries above the aisles held the Bibliotheca Palatina, one of the most important libraries of the German Renaissance. After the Catholic League took Heidelberg in 1622 during the Thirty Years' War, Maximilian of Bavaria presented the collection to the Pope, and in 1623 it was carried to Rome, where much of it remains in the Vatican Library. A part of the manuscripts was returned to Heidelberg in 1816. The church was also a stage for religious conflict. It was Calvinist under the Palatine electors, later shared between Catholics and Protestants after 1705 with a dividing wall, and the wall was removed in 1936, since when the church has been Protestant. Market stalls once stood between the buttresses, a reminder of the church's role in civic life. Visitors can enter the nave, and the tower can be climbed in season for views over the Old Town roofs and the castle. Services, concerts and organ recitals still take place, so access can be restricted at times. The interior is plain compared with Baroque churches nearby, reflecting its Reformed Protestant use, and restoration campaigns have focused on stabilising masonry and reopening the nave to the full height of its Gothic vaults.