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Paper short abstract

This proposal examines the case of the Baku Lutheran Church, a former house of worship repurposed into as a concert hall in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. By focusing on religious and secular communities that make use of the building today I explore the practices of co-existence and claims of ‘belonging’.

Paper long abstract

The paper examines the Baku Lutheran Kirche (Kircha) as a pivotal site that has been transformed into a symbol of a state-endorsed project of “multiculturalism” and religious tolerance in a Muslim-majority country. Historically a site of worship for Swedish and German oil barons and later a Soviet-era survivor, the building’s recent transformation into a state-sanctioned Philharmonic Organ Hall represents a significant architectural and symbolic shift. However, this "secular" repurposing has not erased its sacred function; instead, diverse Christian communities navigate a "religious market" to rent the space for their regular Sunday services.

By drawing on Jeffrey C. Alexander’s theory of iconic consciousness, I argue that the Kircha operates as a "condensed symbol" whose material form generates profound emotional and moral meaning for both secular and religious actors. This creates a unique form of "place-making from below," where the agentic power of the building, its “aesthetic surface”, serves as a reminder of a sacred past that resists a purely secular identity and instead generates multiple manifestations of “discursive depth” (Alexander 2008).

This process positions the Kircha as a contested space where state narratives of multicultural tolerance and interreligious dialogue intersect with the lived aspirations of local Christians. By analyzing this specific case, the proposal sheds light on how architectural repurposing is not a static administrative act but a dynamic, contested process. The paper explores how these overlapping uses of the building foster complex debates on belonging and memory, the visibility of the religious, and adherence to secular values.