Parish Church of Saint George – Left outside

The parish church of St. George was for a long time Amberg’s only and first parish church. It was not even directly in the village, but a little outside. The original nave was also located a little further southeast during excavations. Due to the discovery of coats of arms and seals, the two earlier incarnations of Saint George were discovered. The first church is mentioned in documents in 1094, which apparently in Romanesque style asked people to pray. Today the church is classified in the Gothic style. However, it also bears clear hallmarks from the Baroque era. These influences date from the seventeenth century.

The present parish church of St. George was built from 1359 onwards, initially under master builder Heinrich Hirsel. For the construction of the three-nave basilica with a single-nave choir was protracted. The actual church was completed as early as 1407, but the tower was not built until the beginning of the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century, the Jesuits, who owned the church at the time, began the baroqueization of the complex. This was completed under the secular order of the Knights of Malta, as the Jesuit order was banned in the last third of the eighteenth century.

Competition among churches

The privilege of calling itself a parish church was transferred to the present Basilica of Saint Martin in 1629. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the Jesuits built the massive college in front of the church. So there was plenty of room for the friars and the pupils of the associated grammar school.

With all the conversions one proceeded only little squeamishly. Grave slabs, gothic figure groups and other religious works of art were simply reused as building material. To whom exactly these outrages are to be attributed cannot be precisely determined.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the former parish church of Saint George became a garrison and study church. In July 1923, the parish of St. George was re-established and has since enriched the religious life of the people of Amberg.