Evangelische Pfarrkirche Zu unserer lieben Frau

Evangelische Pfarrkirche Zu unserer lieben Frau stands in Asch, a village within Blaubeuren, Germany. Its walled churchyard leads you past the seventeenth-century half-timbered Arresthäusle and painted wooden steles showing the story of creation. The slender tower rises about 41 metres, with an octagonal top and a green-glazed tiled roof.

The late Gothic choir was completed in 1497 and carries a terracotta net-ribbed vault with four keystones. A 1510 fresco shows the Madonna beneath a protective mantle, wearing a dress decorated with ears of grain. Nearby, a sacrament niche recalls earlier worship, while a Baroque crucifixion group dates from the early seventeenth century. A Romanesque baptismal font, terracotta console figures and Günter Späth’s 1964 choir windows add further layers. Helmut Bornefeld’s 1969 organ has 14 stops, two manuals and a pedal, all operated mechanically.

One striking reminder of local hardship is the Ascher Ährenkasten, a grain chest commemorating the famine of 1816 and 1817. The church first appears in documents from 1236, yet its present character reflects a renovation during the 1960s, which gave the interior a simple, dignified appearance.