Helena-Kapelle, Bonn

The Helenenkapelle is a church building in Bonn-Zentrum and is considered the only preserved Romanesque house chapel of a collegiate curia in the Rhineland.

It was probably built around 1160 as a house chapel under the then provost of the Cassius Abbey, Gerhard von Are, who introduced the veneration of St. Helena in Bonn, and served as a devotional room for the canons of the Cassius Abbey. The chapel was renovated in 1657 by the canon Johann F. Fabritius.

During the bombardment of Bonn in 1689 by the Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg - later the first King Frederick I in Prussia - the chapel was severely damaged. The reconstruction was started only in 1752. The solemn consecration of the altar took place in 1760. During secularization, the church building became private property in 1803. Since 1905, the city of Bonn has been the owner. During World War II, the chapel was again severely damaged, with the cross vault displaced by air pressure and the paintings largely destroyed by moisture. Subsequent reconstruction took place until 1949, and during renovation work in the 1960s, frescoes were uncovered in the interior of the chapel that are believed to date from the 13th to 15th centuries. On April 23, 1973, the restored Helen's Chapel was reopened.

Today, the chapel is surrounded by buildings and can thus only be seen from the outside from the second floor of the SinnLeffers fashion store. A staircase in the colonnades of the street Am Hof leads to the simple 3.5 × 3.5 meter prayer room with a cross vault, a semicircular apse and floor slabs from the time the chapel was built. It is listed as an architectural monument.

On January 27, 2020, the Bonn local time reported on the Helenenkapelle.