Sacristy of Mariae Namen

The existing sacristy rooms of the Mariaenamen Church, consecrated in 1850, could no longer meet the increased requirements for church service preparations, as services for the Italian, Croatian and Czech Catholic communities have also been held in the city parish church, which is important beyond the borders of Hanau, for years. In 1997, an application from the community to build a new sacristy was approved by the Episcopal Vicariate General in Fulda.

The new sacristy encloses the church choir in a parabolic shape and offers approximately 160 square meters of space for priests, sextons, lectors, altar boys as well as vestments and sacred equipment.

Two cavities are embedded in the large form of the sacristy: a courtyard paved with cobblestones is open to the street and defines the entrance to the building. A smaller courtyard, enclosed by two sacristy rooms for priests and altar boys and the outer wall, is glazed on three sides and is only open to the sky. Its bottom is covered with water.

A group room located directly at the entrance courtyard is used for various community activities. The room can be completely opened up to the entrance courtyard via a sliding glass wall

The curved church wall made of red sandstone and the glass panels embedded between the concrete panes characterize the path from the sacristy to the altar. They create a special spatial sequence with diverse visual references to the individual sacristy rooms, the courtyards and the sky.

The quarry stone for the outer wall of the sacristy comes from the same quarry as the stone that was used to build the church.

Only the format and surface of the stone have changed. The red-brown iridescent stone blocks have an edge length of 15 centimeters and a broken surface.