St. Margaret

The Neue Pfarrkirche St. Margaret stands in Munich’s Sendling district as a large Roman Catholic parish church designed by Michael Dosch. Its west front and tall tower rise above the local skyline, while inside a vast barrel vault soars 26.6 metres above a nave 75.5 metres long and 21 metres wide. The façade’s strong modelling and the tower’s 85.5-metre height give the building its Italian High-Baroque character. The church was made possible by three Sendling farmers who in 1891 founded a building society and each donated 100,000 Marks towards the land. Construction began in 1902, but costs soon exceeded estimates by eighty per cent and the architect Dosch died in 1910. His successor Franz Xaver Boemmel completed the work in 1913 only with extra funds from the original donors and the perseverance of parish priest Alois Gilg. Inside, a Rococo high altar and two late-medieval wooden statues of Saint George and Saint Margaret draw the eye. The organ, rebuilt and enlarged several times after wartime damage, now has sixty-four stops across three manuals and pedal. Five bells hang in the tower, the oldest cast in 1913 and the newest in 1958, and their changing patterns mark the Angelus, the close of day, and Saturday’s Sunday call.