St. Lukas Kirche

This guide to St. Lukas Kirche in Munich follows the church that had to disguise itself to get built: in the 1890s, Munich's Protestants needed a grand new home, but the Catholic royal family running Bavaria was uneasy about a towering Lutheran landmark. It traces how architect Albert Schmidt was told to dress the building in Romanesque arches and early Gothic details borrowed from before the Reformation, so its silhouette would not offend, before the church was finished in 1896. It also follows the night in September 1943 when Allied bombers tore through central Munich and reached this riverbank.