"The grandeur of German churches is due in part to the tax that the congregation pays for their upkeep. One impressive example is the Herz-Jesu-Kirche, which reopened in 2000 after a fire destroyed the original in 1994. The design by architecture firm Allmann Sattler Wappner features glass-and-maple slats that rise above the modernist pews. Artist Alexander Beleschenko devised a symbolic alphabet that denotes passages from the “St John Passion”, which adorn the glass panels on the 14-metre-high doors."