The original church is probably a former royal court chapel. It was first mentioned in a document in 1222, according to which Engelbert I exchanged the patronage rights to the church in Elsey with Countess Mathilde von Altena for the rights to the church of St. Martinus in Biggen. In the same year, the first priest, Conrad Sacerdos in Bige, was mentioned in a document. The oldest church must have been about one meter lower than the present one, as one has to descend so far to reach the staircase of the tower. The present church was built between 1769 and 1773. The south portal is marked 1770 and the tower could date from the 11th to 13th century. The church from 1770 was a single-nave building with rectangular cross vaults. Three bays of the Gothicizing Baroque hall have been preserved. A neo-Romanesque transept was added between 1888 and 1889. At the same time, two sacristies and a prayer room for the von Wendt family were added. The masonry and vaults of the church were made of quarry stone and plastered. The door and window frames, as well as the sloping base, were made of sandstone. The roofs and buttresses are covered with slate. All the cornices are made of wood. The round-arched south portal with rich entablature bears the inscriptionCCesIa.DeI.beatiqVe.MartInI.noVa.sVrgebat. (The church of God and St. Martin was newly built), the large Latin letters are a chronogram and signify the year 1770. In a shell niche stands a figure of St. Martin, created by the sculptor Leonard Falter from Büren.
On April 2, 1945, at the end of the Second World War, US troops began shelling Bigge[1] On the night of April 5, the area of St. Martin's was particularly shelled. The sexton was killed by a shell fragment. Seven people were killed in the shelter in the bell tower, which received a direct hit. Apart from the high altar, the church was devastated.
From 1975 to 1976, the interior and exterior were extensively renovated. The painting was carried out using structures, colors and motifs from the 1894 design. Three apostle crosses in the lower part of the church and the gilding on the upper sections of the southern confessional have been preserved from the old painting. The church was remodeled in accordance with the provisions of the Second Vatican Council and redesigned with a celebratory altar placed at the intersection of the choir and transept. New stained glass windows were installed, the work of Nikolaus Bette from Essen. They mainly depict scenes from the New Testament. The southern round window in the transept shows the fifteen mysteries of the rosary, while the northern round window depicts scenes from the Old Testament.
(Texts: Tourism Brilon Olsberg)