Tours · Düsseldorf · church
Basilica of St. Lambertus
Duesseldorf's most beloved landmark is a puzzle in stone, a Gothic brick basilica whose slender spire twists toward the sky like a corkscrew. Legend blames the devil, but the truth lies in a batch of unseasoned oak.
About this place
Rising over the old town just steps from the Rhine, the Basilica of St. Lambertus has been Duesseldorf's mother church since it was consecrated in 1394, built in the warm red brick of the Lower Rhine Gothic. Its interior guards the relics of Saint Apollinaris, carried here from Ravenna, and the tombs of the dukes who once ruled these lands, while Pope Paul the Sixth raised it to the rank of Basilica minor in 1974. Yet it is the spire that draws every gaze, a helical, twisting steeple born of a fire in 1815 and the green, unseasoned timber used to rebuild it. Locals cherish the story that the devil wrung the tower in fury, and when the bombs of war destroyed the steeple they insisted the famous twist be faithfully restored.
Key facts
- 1394 year — The Gothic brick hall church was consecrated on the foundations of a far older sanctuary
- 1815 year — A fire destroyed the spire, and the damp, unseasoned timber used to rebuild it warped into the famous twist
- 1974 year — Pope Paul the Sixth granted St. Lambertus the honorary rank of Basilica minor
📍 Stiftsplatz 1, 40213, Düsseldorf