Mutter Gottes Kirche on West 6th Street in Covington, Kentucky is absolutely brimming with Germanic history. The church was built and dedicated in 1842 with monies donated by the Leopoldine Mission Society of Vienna for German Catholics in the Covington area, it contains five beautiful murals by parishioner Johann Schmitt, there are stained glass windows imported from Munich, an organ by the German-American company A. Koehnken and Grimm, and a cemetery in which rest the mortal remains of the well known painter Frank Duveneck. The structure itself features an Italian Renaissance style façade and 200- foot tall bell towers. Today, the church is one of the few area inner city churches whose membership has increased in recent years, partly because it is permitted to welcome members from outside the traditional parish locale, and partly because of the beauty of both the church and the German traditions its congregation holds dear.
Interior and Johann Schmitt Murals in Mother of God Roman Catholic Church
Photo by Patrick Reddy
Courtesy of The Cincinnati Enquirer
Bibliographical Sources:
The Bicentennial Guide to Greater Cincinnati: A Portrait of Two Hundred Years, by Geoffrey J. Giglierano, Deborah A. Overmeyer, with Frederic L. Propas, The Cincinnati Historical Society, 1988, page 136
German Heritage Guide to the Greater Cincinnati Area, by Don Heinrich Tolzmann, Little Miami Publishing Company, Milford, Ohio, 2003, page 48
