Eutin - St. Michaelis

The Slavic Abodrites settled eastern Holstein since the 7th/8th century A.D. and built a castle on an island in the "Grossen Eutiner See" (Great Eutin Lake). After the Wendish Crusade, in the course of the German settlement in the East, German and Dutch settlers migrated since the 12th century. In 1156 Eutin became a residence of the (prince) bishops of Lübeck. It received the city rights in 1257.

St. Michaelis was built in the 12th century in Romanesque style as a 40m long basilica. Due to the rise of the Lübeck Hanseatic bourgeoisie in the 13th century, disputes arose between the representatives of the bourgeois and the clerical power. Thus, Lübeck's bishop Burkhard von Serkem fled several times from Lübeck to his residence in Eutin and founded here in 1309 the collegiate chapter, which promoted the reconstruction of St. Michaelis from Romanesque to Gothic style. So at that time the choir and apse were replaced by the Gothic choir, which still exists today.

The Reformation in Eutin did not progress for a long time. For many years Catholic services were celebrated in the choir room (behind a rood screen) and Protestant services in the nave.
The wooden statue of the Virgin is from 1322. In 1760 the Guild of Tailors financed the chandelier in which she has been placed ever since.