St. Apollinaris

St Apollinaris stands in Oberbilk, a district of Düsseldorf. It is a five-aisled Catholic hall church with an almost square floor plan. The building was designed by Caspar Clemens Pickel. Three central aisles form the hall church, with narrower side aisles to north and south. The smaller southern choir has a chapel beside it, matching the sacristy spaces on the northern side. The central choir projects eastward beyond the two side choirs, and the tower rises at the west end. The church was built because rapid industrial growth in Düsseldorf made the old St Martin parish too large. By 1900 the new St Josef parish had more than twenty-seven thousand members, the biggest in the Archdiocese of Cologne. A church-building association was founded in 1899, and the Eykeler family donated the site. Work began on 10 November 1904 and the church was consecrated to St Apollinaris on 26 May 1907. It became an independent parish in 1923. Inside, the church offers a wide, unobstructed space under its high roof. The Romanus Seifert & Sohn organ, built between 1951 and 1962, was restored in 2015. It has thirty-seven speaking stops across three manuals and pedal, with electronic action and a modern console. The instrument blends historic Klais stops from 1927 with new neobaroque and Romantic ranks. The tower contains a peal of bells that rings out over the surrounding streets.