St. Jakobus

The neogothic St Jacobus Church stands in Hilden’s upper Mittelstraße, its red-brick walls rising above the low roofs of the town centre. Built between 1872 and 1882, it replaced an earlier 18th-century stone church on the same spot. The tower, kept from the older building, rises in two sharply contrasting sections: the dark stone base and the lighter brick upper part. Inside, six massive columns divide the nave into three aisles, their red capitals carved with delicate leaf patterns.

The church is best known for its cycle of late-19th-century stained-glass windows. Seventeen of these were paid for by local Catholic societies, clergy and parishioners, whose names appear in the borders. The windows were made by the royal Saxon stained-glass workshop Hertel & Lersch in Düsseldorf and installed between 1895 and 1902. A single later window in the Marienkapelle dates from after 1946. All were restored between 1992 and 1998 by Hein Derix’s workshops in Kevelaer.

Inside, the wide nave is covered by a red-tinted ribbed vault that gives the space a calm glow. The windows throw coloured light onto the plain surfaces, while the black columns with their flower-like capitals stand out against the red brick walls. The church’s three apses contain altars dedicated to St Jacobus the Elder, the Virgin Mary and St Anthony of Padua.