Aisleless church

The church interior consists of one large hall. This can be square, rectangular, oval or round.The altar is also an integral feature and does not stand in its own separate chancel. This type of church particularly suits the evangelical understanding of church and the church service, and  emphasises the community of the faithful.

In the Middle Ages, churches with a tower and a chancel predominated. The nave was built on to the area of the altar on the ground floor of the tower. Many of these churches were turned into aisleless churches by placing a pulpit altar in front of the chancel arch. The former chancel behind the altar was separated off  by curtains, wooden panels or stone walls, and serves nowadays as the sacristy or as a chapel (for instance in Bayreuth (the parish church of St John), Benk, Plech and Trebgast.

New churches were built as aisleless churches. The Church of the Order in Bayreuth (picture) has an almost square ground plan in the form of a Greek cross, as was already familiar, for instance in Amsterdam. Thanks to their internal width and their rich decoration using pictures, statues and ornamentation, many churches give the impression of being like a heavenly ballroom (eg Neudrossenfeld, Regnitzlosau, Seibelsdorf or the church of St. Veit, Wunsiedel).