Kirche Oßling

The early-Classical church in Oßling stands in the middle of the village in the Bautzen district of Saxony. Built between 1801 and 1805, it follows the lines of Lohmen village church and Uhyst am Taucher but keeps its own long axis instead of a transept. Inside, work dragged on until the 1860s, and the original pulpit-altar was taken apart in 1897 to make separate pulpit and altar. Two restorations, in 1909 and 1985, have kept the building in good order.

The outside is a plastered rectangle marked by broad pilasters and topped with a tall hipped roof. Five bays on north and south each hold a rectangular window below and a tall round-arched window above, while the east end has three doors. A square west tower rises to a domed cap with a lantern, and its main door carries an oval inscribed tablet. Inside, the flat ceiling springs from a deep cove and is ringed by three-storey pew galleries that stop only at the east end for the altar.

The 1897 altar carries a simple painting of the risen Christ, and the matching wooden pulpit has an octagonal bowl with painted images of the Saviour and the four Evangelists. The octagonal font of 1854 is adorned with shallow reliefs of cherubs’ heads. The organ, built in 1885 by Eule Orgelbau, now has fifteen stops on two manuals and pedal after later changes.