St Lambertus Cathedral -known by locals as Immerather Dom - in Immerath, was torn down by energy company RWE despite public protests in western Germany.
Police brought in reinforcements to manage a crowd of protesters who held up the demolition for five hours, local newspaper Rheinische Post reported.
Good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.
— ArchitecturalRevival (@Arch_Revival_) January 10, 2018
St Lambertus church in the village of Immerath was demolished today.#Germany #Deutschland #German pic.twitter.com/5kzvX1E632
The double-spired church, thought to have been built between 1880 and 1890 and the farming village surrounding it was bought out by energy company RWE.
The village which was once home to a population of 1,200 has diminished since the company took over.
A new village, however, has been built by RWE seven miles away where houses and a new hospital have been built, and bodies exhumed from the graveyard in Immerath have been reburied.
The new village also has a chapel and a small replica of the demolished cathedral in the plaza.
Germany still gets about 40 per cent of its electricity from coal-fired plants.
The country plans to stop using nuclear energy by 2022, but Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has resisted calls to set a deadline for ending the use of coal.
