There are no aisles in the choir, which dates from the thirteenth century and terminates with a multi-sided apse pierced by long lancet windows.
The Stadt Kirche of Gladbach, or the parish church as it properly takes rank, is still a Catholic edifice and shows the advantage of having been kept in active use. There is nothing musty or moss-grown about it, but in every[{316}] way it is as warmly appealing as the monks' church is coldly unattractive.
There is no marked choir termination, its great aisles extending completely to the rear with just a suspicion of a rudimentary pentagonal apse to suggest the easterly end. This is a common enough arrangement in German churches, which more frequently than not, in the fourteenth century, the date of this structure, possessed nothing but a squared-off east end, after the English manner of building.
At the westerly end is a well-planned tower distinctly Rhenish—if it were not it would be thought heavy—and where the choir is supposed to join the nave the roof is surmounted by a tiny spire, which, in truth, is no addition of beauty.
The interior shows great height, and, if of no great architectural splendour, has enough mural embellishment and attractive glass to stamp it as a livable and lovable edifice for religious worship, which is a good deal more than most modern church buildings ever acquire.
The six bays of the nave show pointed arches springing from rounded columns. There is an arcaded triforium, and an elaborate series of clerestory windows which show[{317}] the geometrical and flamboyant Gothic in its perfection.
The apse is lighted with five windows of great height. The glass is a mixture of colour and monotone, but the effect is undeniably good.
The chancel is so shallow that the choir flows over, as it were, into one bay of the nave, while the choir-stalls themselves are placed in the aisles. Certainly a most unusual, and perhaps a unique, arrangement.
An altar fronts the west end of either range of stalls, and back, at the easterly end of the aisles, is found another altar.
The high altar has a handsome modern screen in the form of a gilt triptych, which is singularly effective and imposing.