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A unique overnight experience: since 2017, guests have been able to spend the night in the first HER(R)BERGSKIRCHE Michaelis in Neustadt am Rennsteig. Three more churches have been added since then.
© Stiftung Baukultur Thüringen/IBA Thüringen, Foto Thomas Müller
The four HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN are located along the Rennsteig and are now creating new impulses for the sustainable combination of devotion and tourism, establishing new forms of social coexistence in the Thuringian Forest.
© Stiftung Baukultur Thüringen/IBA Thüringen, Foto Thomas Müller
Since the beginning of the project, more than 700 people have used this extraordinary overnight offer, including numerous guests from abroad. The HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN act as gateways for further exploration of the region, thus creating a new kind of regional attention for the natural and tourist landscape of the Thuringian Forest.
© Stiftung Baukultur Thüringen/IBA Thüringen, Foto Thomas Müller
View of the Lutheran Church in Tambach-Dietharz in snowy February 2021. The second meeting place and overnight accommodation on the Rennsteig was built here the year before.
© Stiftung Baukultur Thüringen/IBA Thüringen, Foto Thomas Müller
In the centuries-old tower of the Lutheran church of Tambach-DIetharz there is a small, cozy room for overnight guests.
© Stiftung Baukultur Thüringen/IBA Thüringen, Foto Thomas Müller
The sleeping arrangements in the Matthäuskirche in Spechtsbrunn are not predetermined.  A folding bed is handed out to guests in the vicarage, which can be positioned anywhere in the baroque church interior.
© Stiftung Baukultur Thüringen/IBA Thüringen, Foto Marcus Glahn
In Hirschberg, three beds were integrated into the galleries of St. Katharina's Church in 2022. In 2023, the fourth HER(R)BERGSKIRCHE can also be booked.
© Stiftung Baukultur Thüringen/IBA Thüringen, Foto Thomas Müller
The focus of the project is always on the local actors who shape the region. They are the ones who engage with their places and, through their actions, connect societal and spatial potentials with a new model of sustainable tourism for the region.
© Stiftung Baukultur Thüringen/IBA Thüringen, Foto Thomas Müller
During the final IBA tour, IBA Managing Director Marta Doehler-Behzadi presented certificates to the Church Community Board of Neustadt am Rennsteig, Horst Brettel, Marco Schütz, Mayor of Tambach-Dietharz, and architect Hannes Langguth of studio etcetera, representing the HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN Thuringian Forest project, for inclusion in the IBA final presentation.
© Stiftung Baukultur Thüringen/IBA Thüringen, Foto Thomas Müller

HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN

⸺ Gateway to a whole region

Wake up under the church sky, gather ingredients for dinner by wandering through herb meadows, and end the day at the communal table on the village square: HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN offers guests a very special sleeping experience, combined with recurring events that promote everyday encounters and exchange among local residents. The four HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN along the Rennsteig thus create impulses for the sustainable connection between devotion and tourism and establish new forms of social coexistence in the Thuringian Forest.

The HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN were initiated in 2016 by the Neustadt-Altenfeld church association and the Berlin architecture firm studio etcetera in the context of the open call for ideas StadtLand:Kirche of the IBA Thuringia and the Evangelical Church in Central Germany (EKM). This was followed in 2017 by the initially experimental implementation of the hybrid usage idea in the Michaeliskirche Neustadt am Rennsteig, which creatively involved local people in the creation process, gave the entire community a boost, and finally created synergies in the region. In 2019, the HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN became a project of the IBA Thuringia. In 2021, a LEADER project funding was granted to supplement the existing conversion in the Michaeliskirche with sanitary facilities and a multifunctional tea kitchen, as well as lockers for overnight guests. Based on the pilot project, which is now firmly anchored in the region and has received several awards and honors, a future-oriented development concept for the Thuringian Forest region was developed in recent years, which deliberately sets impulses against the increasing decline of public infrastructure and thus against the loss of everyday places of coexistence.

The focus is always on the local actors who are committed to their places and link social and spatial potentials with a new model of sustainable tourism for the region through their actions. Inspired by the successful IBA project, other church communities in the region have embarked on the path of opening their buildings as accommodations for hikers and events. This was also the case in Tambach-Dietharz, where the potential of the Lutherkirche as a meeting and overnight stay location was translated into reality in 2020. The studio etcetera, together with the local church community, built new furniture for the church space, organized a film evening, and collected local stories. Since 2021, the HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN in Spechtsbrunn and Hirschberg an der Saale have joined the already established locations to form a large project family. Since the start of the project, more than 700 people have used the unique overnight accommodation offer, including numerous guests from abroad. The HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN see themselves as a door opener for further exploration of the region and thus create a new kind of regional attention for the nature and tourism landscape of the Thuringian Forest. At the same time, they contribute to the preservation of local building culture.

The idea for the HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN emerged from the ›STADTLAND:Kirche 2017‹ ideas competition of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany (EKM) and the IBA Thuringia. The IBA project is one of seven model projects that emerged from the call for ideas. Since 2021, the project has been visible beyond the region through an online presence supported by the Thuringian Tourism Program, through which overnight stays in the HER(R)BERGSKIRCHEN can be booked.

Orte

Kirche St. Katharina

Kirchplatz
69493 Hirschberg (Saale)

Michaeliskirche

Kirchgasse
98701 Neustadt am Rennsteig

Matthäuskirche

Am Winterberg
96515 Spechtsbrunn

Lutherkirche

Schmalkalder Straße
99897 Tambach-Dietharz

Contact

Projekt sponsor

Financial support