Interior
While the exterior is traditional and closely related to the former building, the interior is completely different. It has always been very bright. The windows, with their yellow-toned ornamental glass, fill the space with light. The deliberate simplicity and absence of figurative stained glass evoke Cistercian monastery churches – a fitting association given St. Bernhard of Clairvaux, the most renowned Cistercian, as one of the church’s patrons.
Particularly unusual is the choir, with its free-standing colonnade and ambulatory. Like the portico, this classical architectural element reflects Jean-Charles Moreux’s French background. The grand design of the choir may also allude to the church’s former status as the mother church of Hamburg’s Catholic community (before the establishment of the Archdiocese in 1995) and to the role of its pastor as the leading Catholic cleric in the city.
