Catholic Church St. Marien in Bad Berleburg

In the city center of Bad Berleburg you will find the Catholic church St. Marien which was consecrated in 1954. It is the center of the Catholic community of Bad Berleburg and its villages.

The church is special because since the introduction of the Reformation in Bad Berleburg by Count Johann in 1534, there were hardly any Catholics here. This changed in 1816 with the Congress of Vienna, which made the town an official seat under the rule of the Prussian king.

Due to this many administrative employees came to Bad Berleburg, who attend with loads of efford the Holy Mass in the neighbouring county in the Sauerland. The new mayor saw their difficult situation and  in 1834 on Whitsun the first Catholic service in 300 years was celebrated in the town - in the newly built town hall.

The steadily growing congregation soon bought a house at the Goetheplatz as a meeting place, but soon this was also too small and in 1868 they moved to a "little church" in the Schlossstraße.

Shortly after the congregation was elevated to a full parish in 1896, it purchased a large plot of land in the heart of the city, but due to the two world wars, the new church could not be built and consecrated until 1953/54.