St. Imre church is the result of the 17th century fight between the different nationalities. After 1558, the citizens of Koszeg were divided into smaller groups depending upon their religions and nationalities. This fact influenced the life of the local government and also, the local church.
The German Lutherans, after having played an important role in the City's life, felt themselves strong enough to expel the Hungarian Protestants from St. James Church, upon the request of whom, the town started to build a new church in 1615. Walent Marx, a master builder from Kirschlag started to build the new church, but finally it was completed by another master build called Wolf Zehentmayer in 1640.
He was inclined to build a similar church for the Hungarians to the former one. He built the tower higher during one of the renovations. There is no other explanation that the church, built during the time of baroque and renaissance in the beginning of the 17th century, bears gothic signs.
The church, originally built for the Protestants, as taken away by Tamas Palffy and Gyorgy Szechenyi in 1673 and was given to the Catholics and served as the parish church of the city until the end of the 19th century.
ikonnal bővítheti túráját.
