After the west choir was renovated with Gothic elements in the 15th century, in 1771 Bishop Adam Friedrich of Seinsheim added a modern Baroque façade on the eastern apse, where his coat of arms can still be recognized above the main portal. At the same time, the second half-finished tower on the south side was demolished and the northern one was decorated with a stylish onion dome.
During the secularization the church was to be sold in 1803 and then demolished. But the Marian lord and citizen sodality could secure the preservation of the building by the acquisition, so that it is still today property of the Sodality Church. When the old Franciscan monastery was dissolved and the monastery church was demolished, the Franciscans settled opposite St. Jacob, where they were granted the right of use from 1852.
Similar to St. Gangolf, St. Jakob in medieval Bamberg belonged to the so-called immunities and thus determined its own legal district.
Although the Baroque façade was added to the church in 1771, the Romanesque architecture inside has hardly changed at all to this day.
The bells of St. Jakob
The north tower contains five bells. The Jacobus and Marian bells date from the 14th century and were cast by an unknown bell smithy. The youngest of all bells is the Franziskus Bell from 1956. Its creator was Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling, who came from the famous bell founders family Schilling. The Mass Bell dates from 1540 and was made by a Nuremberg factory. The choir bell was created in 1718 by Johann Conrad Roth in Forchheim, who was also responsible for casting two bells in Alt-St. Martin.
