Vilich - St. Peter

St. Peter is the parish church of Vilich, today part of Bonn.

Around 987, a Benedictine convent was founded by Count Meningoz von Geldern. His daughter Adelheid was the first abbess here. The pilgrimages to the burial place of Saint Adelheid, who is still the patron saint of Bonn, became very popular and a large three-nave collegiate and pilgrimage church was built between 1020 and 1050. In 1208-1222, a small choir was added by builders who had previously worked at Bonn Minster.

When the Gothic cathedral began in Cologne, the Vilich nuns also wished to have their church embellished in the same way by Cologne builders around 1270/80, what brought the monastery to the brink of economic ruin.

Destruction in the wars of the 16th and 17th centuries led to the partial demolition of the nave around 1650 and the construction of a new west wall for the shortened nave. Shortly before 1700, the large west tower was built in the area of the former nave. The shape that the church took around 1700 has been largely preserved.

Since the abolition of the free noble secular Vilich Abbey in1804, the church serves the parish.