UNITED STATES, September 5, 2026 (New York Times): The St. Marien Church is a mid-20th-century landmark in northern Essen, Germany. It is slated for demolition in October of this year. It is one of more than 20,000 churches across Germany that is expected to be abandoned in the next five to 10 years. And further thousands of churches across Western Europe are expected to become vacant in the coming years as their societies’ connection to Christianity wanes. There is no central plan for what to do with the buildings, but secular cultural organizations, artists, preservationists and city planners are looking for ways to repurpose them for the benefit of their cities and towns—whether as health care centers, bookstores or spaces for the arts. Every day, another church is sold,” said Lilian Grootswagers-Theuns, the president of the advisory board for Future for Religious Heritage, a Belgium-based nonprofit network that focuses on empty religious buildings. “This is happening everywhere in Europe — in Germany, Sweden, Spain and Italy.” Churches, once central to European cultural life, were typically situated in the heart of a city and built to last. “Before you even had the nations, you had a European tradition going back to the fourth century of having a church for each city, each village,” said Barbara Welzel, a professor of art history and cultural education at the TU Dortmund University in Germany.

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