The parish church of Bartholomäus, Schauenstein

There are two reminders that in 1414 this church burnt down for the third time: one behind the altar and one on the organ. The inscription on the wall near the Hohenzollern coat of arms tells us that a new church roof was needed in 1676, although the church remained undamaged in the Thirty Years’ war. Two more tablets on the organ describe the village below the castle’s being granted town status in 1422 and the church renovation in 1839-43, when this house of God was ‘given a new roof, was freshly painted and gilded to make it more beautiful, and furnished with a new organ’ and the interior took on its present appearance. A face in the sacristy in the basement of the tower could be that of Otto von Schauenstein, the founder of the castle (now used as the fire brigade museum) and of the first castle chapel at the beginning of the 13C. Gothic wallpaintings testify to the age of this former chapel.
But it is important to be reminded not simply of the history of the church, but above all of what God has done and does still for the salvation of mankind.The visitor is surrounded on all sides by many angels on the walls and in the window niches, some of whom show the instruments of Christ’s Passion and thereby show the deliverance which happened on the Cross. Christ Crucified stands at the centre of the body of the pulpit altar, carved in 1717 by Johann Nikoläus Knoll (who also carved the baroque organ case), then richly gilded and brightly painted by Johann Georg Schürer. High up, the Resurrected Christ , in a halo of rays of light, promises victory over Death. The Evangelists on all four corners personify that their message is to go out to every point of the compass. In the predella is a painting of the Last Supper at which Jesus  asks his disciples to  ‘Do this in memory of me.’