St. Viti Kirche - Zeven

From monastery to parish - a church with a special history

St. Viti Church Zeven was built between 1141 and around 1158 as part of the relocation of the canon monastery from Heeslingen to Zeven. The monastery developed into a Benedictine convent. The church was built in the Romanesque style and has a cruciform floor plan. A special feature is the high round tower, from which Carl Friedrich Gauss carried out land surveys in the 1820s.

In the Westphalian peace treaty of 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War, Zeven Monastery - like the entire Duchy of Bremen - was awarded to Sweden. The Swedes dissolved the monastery. As a result, the church finally became the church of the Protestant-Lutheran community of Zeven.