St. Barbara Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic church in downtown Tsumeb

Tsumeb

Tsumeb is a city of 15,000 inhabitants and the largest town in Oshikoto region in northern Namibia. Tsumeb is the home of the world-famous Tsumeb mine, and the "gateway to the north" of Namibia. It is the closest town to the Etosha National Park...

, Oshikoto Region

Oshikoto Region

Oshikoto is one of the thirteen regions of Namibia. The northern part of the region is agricultural, whereas the main economic activities in the southern part are cattle rearing and mining...

, Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

. Built in 1914, the church is dedicated to Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara, , Feast Day December 4, known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian saint and martyr....

, the patron saint of mine workers. Tsumeb's economy is based on mining. In the 2000s, the Church dominated the view of downtown Tsumeb. It was built by the German South-West Africa

German South-West Africa

German South West Africa was a colony of Germany from 1884 until 1915, when it was taken over by South Africa and administered as South West Africa, finally becoming Namibia in 1990...

n colonial authorities. From the church's founding in 1914 until 1927, it functioned as the only operating church in the mining town.