St.-Michaels-Kirche

St Michael stands in the village of Weiler in the hills above Schwäbisch Gmünd. The church is a late-Romanesque Catholic parish building dedicated to the archangel Michael. A squat stone tower rises above the nave, its upper storey framed in timber. The building began in the early 13th century as a simple choir-tower church. Records from 1358 already mention the parish, and in 1408 the first written reference to the tower appears. After a 1426–27 remodelling gave the tower its timber-framed upper section, the nave was lengthened in the 18th century. By the early 20th century the church was judged too small, yet instead of rebuilding, Albert Hänle enlarged it in 1946 and turned the choir to face west. Between 1983 and 1985 an interior restoration returned medieval plaster and paint to view. Inside, the nave is lined with plain whitewashed walls and a flat ceiling. The west-facing choir contains a simple altar beneath a round-arched window. The tower’s ground floor serves as a small chapel, its ribbed vault echoing the 13th-century masons’ craft. Outside, the churchyard is bordered by farm buildings and meadows, offering quiet views over the valley towards Schwäbisch Gmünd.