Stiftskirche

St. Mariä Himmelfahrt stands in the heart of Kleve, a town in the Lower Rhine region. It began as a Romanesque basilica built of tuff in the 12th century. After the Marian Stift moved from Monterberg in 1341, the present Gothic church rose quickly under Count Dietrich IX. The choir was finished by 1356, the nave by 1394, and the twin-tower façade by 1426. During the Second World War the church was almost completely destroyed, but by 1956 the interior was restored and the towers rebuilt by 1969. Today it serves as the parish church for more than eleven thousand Catholics in Kleve.

The church houses notable works from several centuries. In the north choir aisle stands a 15th-century reliquary chest that once held relics of three companions of Saint Ursula. The stained glass windows, created between 1956 and 2006, were designed by artists such as Dieter Hartmann and the Lünenborgs. The Rieger organ of 1992 has forty-five registers and was later fitted with a celesta, tubular bells and a rotating cymbal star. Six bells hang in the towers, including two historic 1404 bells inscribed for Saint Catharine.

Visitors enter through the Gothic façade and find a single, lofty nave with aisles. The high altar stands beneath a modern baldachin, and the 15th-century reliquary chest is visible on the north side. The church’s six bells and a 23-bell carillon ring at set times each day. Above the crossing rises a small octagonal dome, and the rebuilt twin towers dominate the Kleve skyline. The interior walls show traces of the wartime destruction and later restoration.