DIENTZENHOFER, Georg
(b. 1643, Oberulpoint, d. 1689, Waldsassen)

Exterior view

1685-89
Photo
Pilgrimage church, Kappel

Georg Dientzenhofer died in Waldsassen, East Bavaria. Here, near the Bohemian border, during the last four years of his life he designed and built the pilgrimage church of Kappel, a structure that is more in the spirit of the Bohemian than the German cultural tradition. It is with a triapsidal plan and three slender cylindrical minaret-like turrets with onion domes, an unusual arrangement clearly intended to symbolize the Trinity. The church was completed by Christoph Dientzenhofer.

This church must be the most unusual religious building north of the Alps.