Trinity Church (Dreifaltigkeitskirche), Görlitz

In accordance with the preaching mission of the Barefoot Monks, who were also called Grey Monks or Minorites, the church was built in the form of a hall church typical of the mendicant orders. This provided enough space for a large audience. As early as August 1245, its choir could be consecrated by Bishop Konrad of Meissen, to the Mother of God and the founder of the order, Saint Francis of Assisi. Since that time, the Görlitz fair has always started on 18 August. Between 1371 and 1381, the originally late Romanesque apse was replaced by a Gothic octagonal chancel. It is possible that the alterations were connected with the efforts of Emperor Charles IV, who had established a secondary duchy in Görlitz for his son John and needed a representative church for this purpose.

From this construction phase, vault paintings and the oldest Görlitz gravestone preserved in the Barbarakapelle (Barbara Chapel) have been preserved. It was erected at the time for Johann Berka von der Duba, a son of the then Upper Lusatian bailiff, Benes Berka von der Duba. The Barbara Chapel itself and the southern side aisle are additions from the late 15th century, when donations from the townspeople, who had now become rich from the cloth trade, flowed ever more abundantly. It was even possible to win the famous sculptor Hans Olmützer over. From an art-historical perspective, the sculptural group "Christ at Rest", Hans Olmützer's funeral scene from 1493, and the winged altar with the so-called "Golden Mary", a work that is as graceful as it is extraordinarily richly structured, probably also from Hans Olmützer's workshop, are particularly worth seeing. It is attributed to a donation by Georg Emmerich. The choir stalls, which have survived from the time of the renovations at the end of the 14th century, are also remarkable.

After the Franciscans left the church in the course of the Reformation, the church visibly fell into disrepair. It was not until 1715 that the towering, graceful building was recalled and the church was renovated and consecrated to the Holy Trinity. The Baroque magnificent altar with the symbols of the Trinity by Caspar G. von Rodewitz and the epitaphs of Hans Christoph von Gersdorff and the former mayor Knorr von Rosenroth hung in the choir room also date from this more recent period. The monastery buildings were initially used as a school until the old buildings were demolished in 1854 and the new Gymnasium Augustum was built in their place.