St.Ulrich and Afra

St. Ulrich and Afra is a Catholic city parish church and has been a papal basilica in Augsburg since 1937. It is one of the last large late Gothic church buildings in Swabia. The onion-shaped spire became the model for baroque churches in Bavaria. The present church stands on a site that had several church buildings as early as the 8th century. Since 1012, the holy site was under the care of the Benedictine monastery of St. Ulrich and Afra. . The exterior is plastered white and only partially on view because of the surrounding buildings. The simple monumentality of the former monastery church is enhanced by the absence of an open buttress system. The gables were more richly ornamented as show fronts with ogee arches and pinnacles. In the northern corner of the choir rises the high tower, whose octagonal upper storeys are topped off by the familiar copper dome. The arrangement of oculi and oval windows already has a rather baroque effect in the details and stands in clear contrast to the sober austerity of the basilica. . Since 1594, the 93 m high “onion tower” of the Catholic basilica has been pointing towards the Swabian countryside. Only this building - also called the Africa Tower - on the north side of the nave became reality. A tower planned for the south side was never built due to lack of money.