Lutherstadt Wittenberg

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Luther Memorials In Eisleben And Wittenberg (1996); The Castle Church Where The Ninety Five Theses Were Posted In 1517, The Luther House, The Melanchthon House And The Cranach Courtyards · Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt

Wittenberg is a small, flat town on the Elbe where the Reformation began, inscribed by UNESCO in 1996 as part of the Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg. Almost everything is on one straight street of about 1.5 km: the Castle Church at the west end, where the ninety-five theses were posted in 1517 and where Luther and Melanchthon are buried; the market square and the Stadtkirche, where the first Protestant service in German was held and a Cranach altarpiece still stands; the Cranach courtyards with the painter's print shop; and the Luther House at the east end, the former monastery where Luther lived with Katharina von Bora, now the largest museum of the Reformation anywhere. Two honest notes. The theses door is not the original - that one burned in 1760 and the bronze replacement dates from the 1850s. And the draw here is almost entirely church history: if the Reformation does not interest you, half a day is plenty and the town beyond its restored core is plain. An hour from Berlin or Leipzig by train.

Wittenberg old town on the Elbe, from the Castle Church along Collegienstrasse to the Luther House, Saxony-Anhalt, Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

The town, the street and the churches are open all year; the museums are the thing that closes. The Luther House and the Melanchthon House keep roughly daily hours from spring to autumn and usually shut one day a week in winter, commonly Monday - confirm. The Castle Church and the Stadtkirche are normally open free to visitors outside services, with a donation asked, and both close for weddings, funerals and Sunday worship; the Stadtkirche tower keeps its own short and weather-dependent hours. Last admission at the museums is usually thirty to sixty minutes before closing. On 31 October, Reformation Day and a public holiday in Saxony-Anhalt, services and events replace the normal visiting pattern.

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