Museum of Lower Rhine Sacred Art

The Paterskirche was built around 1631 as the order church of the Franciscans of the Strict Observance and is regarded as the largest vaulted hall church on the Lower Rhine. In the 18th century it received its Baroque interior. On the gallery stands the organ built in 1752 by Christian Ludwig König, altered several times over the years and painstakingly reconstructed between 1996 and 2000 on the initiative of the association „König-Orgel in der Paterskirche e. V.“. Today the church serves both as a museum and as a popular setting for regular classical concerts.

The museum itself dates back to 1979, when the town of Kempen and the parish of St. Mariä Geburt founded it together. Two holdings were united under one roof: the movable church treasure of the parish and sacred sculptures from the Kramer Museum.

The parish holdings include precious gold and silver liturgical work – among them chalices, ciboria, reliquaries, viaticum vessels and altar candlesticks. Standout pieces include two lion's-head door pulls from the early 13th century and a Gothic monstrance of 1430. The 19th century is represented by works of the Kempen goldsmith Franz Xaver Hellner.

From the Kramer Museum comes a significant group of late-Gothic wood carving. It features renowned Lower Rhine and Meuse-region masters such as Arnt Beeldesnider, the Cologne Master Tilman, the Carben Master, Dries Holthuys of Kleve, Kersten Woyers, Hendrick Douwermann of Kalkar, Master Jan van Steffeswert and the Master of Elsloo – some works on permanent loan. The collection centres on Flemish-Dutch sacred art of the Middle Ages.

The museum is part of the Franciscan Monastery Cultural Forum, which runs the two municipal museums under shared opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and until 6 p.m. on Thursdays; closed Mondays and Tuesdays. It is additionally closed from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day, from Good Friday through Easter Monday, and on Whit Monday. Admission to the two municipal museums – the Kramer Museum and the Museum of Lower Rhine Sacred Art – is free. Address: Burgstraße 19–23, Kempen.