"Pastorat Kürten", former Wiedenhof in Kürten

The parish of Kürten was founded by the Cologne Cathedral Chapter

The first church built in Kürten could have been a baptistery. Early baptisteries from the 10th/11th century were often under the patronage of St. John the Baptist. It was then a small wooden church in which mass was celebrated and baptisms were performed a few times a year, usually on the major annual festivals. There is definite evidence that a Romanesque church made of stone was built in Kürten in the 12th/13th century, the tower of which is still preserved today. The church was relatively large for the time and its remote location. (See Church of St. John the Baptist). Given the importance of the place, there must also have been accommodation, which can only be assumed but is not documented.

We know that the first pastor for Kürten is mentioned in a document in 1360. Whether he was always there and where he lived is not known. We first learn about the priest's residence from a visitation report by the archbishopric in 1550: "[... that] the pastor's income is very low - he has no pension, only the Wiedenhof, which he himself "manages with maid and farmhand".

In 1650 it is reported that the Wiedenhof was leased out. There is no record of where the priest lived. It was not until over 100 years later that it is documented that Pastor Pool had a new rectory built from his own funds in 1771 to replace a dilapidated house next to the Wiedenhof. Today, we can see this new rectory in a slightly different form as a jewel diagonally opposite the church as the "Old Pastorate".

The parish of Kürten was poor. Various incumbents described Kürten as a "place of exile" and one priest complained that his economic situation was so bad „"that he cannot sustain himself". The size of the parish is given as 3 hours in length and 2 hours in width, and this in a mountainous country where the priest had neither horse nor cart.

It was not until the 19th century that the priest's financial situation changed thanks to regular income from the Wiedenhof and interest on capital from land sold to the civil parish (school, old office, cemetery) and other regular income.

The Wiedenhof, which is repeatedly mentioned in the sources, is much older than the vicarage and is one of the oldest buildings in the parish. The vicarage has been a listed building since 1984.

Parish property

The Wiedenhof was the parish farm of the parish of Kürten and existed until 1963. It was last leased to Willi Dahl, whose family had farmed the farm since the 19th century.

When the farm was demolished in 1963, the youth and parish home was built in its place, which will be converted into a youth center in 2020.