Böhm Chapel (former St. Ursula church), Hürth-Kalscheuren

The parish church of St. Ursula was built in Hürth in 1954-1956 by Gottfried Böhm. A protected monument since 1993, it served for worship until it was deconsecrated in 2006, the year in which its liturgical objects (altar, font, side altar, tabernacle) were removed. After debates about demolishing or converting it, the Cologne gallerist Rafael Jablonka bought it in 2010.

Jablonka had it carefully restored, taking Gottfried Böhm's advice into account. The floor was levelled: once the liturgical objects had gone, the changes of level and the steps had no function left. The bell tower in front of the rotunda was cleared of what crowded it and, as the original bells were gone, a new set was cast for a Philip Glass carillon. Piet Blanckaert designed a new garden. The building reopened in autumn 2010 as the Böhm Chapel, with an exhibition by Terry Winters.

The church is a centralised building: a white rotunda to which conches were added. Twenty-four slender concrete columns, set outside the interior space, carry the dome, and six conches open between these supports. Their floor-to-ceiling windows, more than a hundred square metres in all, let in plenty of daylight; an irregular iron lattice that recalls fishing nets divides them, and coloured glass crystals mark where the bars cross.

Inside, the design is very spare: reinforced concrete, cedar ceilings and light terrazzo floors shape a nave with no interior support, under a dome clad in cedar shingles. The church stands at the edge of an industrial area between Hürth and Cologne.

The Böhm Chapel is devoted to contemporary art, with funding from Rafael Jablonka and the CIT Art Foundation. One of the six conches serves as the entrance; the other five show works by contemporary artists. In the garden, Richard Deacon's sculpture "Two By Two" has been permanently installed since May 2016.

The chapel can be visited at weekends and, on weekdays, by appointment. It is at Hans-Böckler-Straße 170, Hürth.