Bingen - St. Martin

On the place, where the St. Martin Basilica is now, was a Roman temple (Mercury) upto 406. The foundation of this temple were used, when the first Christian churches were erected here. In 891, when the Normans burnt down Bingen, the church got ruined as well. When a new church was completed more than a century later Archbishop Williges (975-1011), who had the nearby Drusus-bridge constructed, established a college of canons here, so the church was a collegiate church from then on.

In 1403 this Romanesque church got destroyed by fire. The new collegiate church was done in Gothic style. The St. Martin Basilica of today joins actually two churches: the former collegiate church and the former parish church, from the early 16th century, dedicated to Saint Barbara.

Below the choir of the Gothic basilica is the Romanesque crypt of the predecessor (11th century). A gravestone was found here, proving that a Christian parish existed already within the 6th century.