evangelische

St Vitus stands in the small market town of Sparneck in northern Bavaria. Built as a monastery church in the late 15th century, it later became the town’s main Protestant place of worship. The choir still shows its monastic origins, while the nave was added after the Reformation. A late-Gothic sacrament niche survives in the choir, and fragments of frescoes depicting Saints Catherine and Barbara were painted over in 1932 after being uncovered in 1932. The church’s history is shaped by the Sparneck family, the Haller von Hallerstein patrons and the margrave Georg Friedrich. In 1572 the first Protestant pastor, Peter Hochmuth, was appointed after local complaints. A new tower replaced the old wooden spire in 1695, and Baroque stucco work by Bernhard Quadri adorns the choir. The 1761 painted wooden angel and the 1845 neo-Gothic furnishings, including an organ by Wilhelm Raithel, add further layers of craftsmanship. Inside, visitors find the oldest marble epitaph for the monastery founder Friedrich von Sparneck. More grave slabs line the walls and floor, among them those of the Amtmann Hans Siegmund Rebhun and his wife Helene, the early pastors Melchior Apel and Margaretha Apel, and the later Forstmeister Johann Konrad Beyer. Two vaults were rediscovered during the 1994–2002 renovation; one holds the founder’s slab, while the other’s stones were used to fill the space. The church’s three stained-glass windows in the choir show Peter, the Resurrection and Paul, the latter reconstructed in 2001 after storm damage.