Today it was a train trip to Wittenberg, the city where Luther posted his 95 Theses on the church Door in 1517. The old city is a beautiful grouping of old houses, including those of Luther, Malancthon (Luther's main collaborator and a primary theologian of the Lutheran Church) and Cranach (an artist and engraver who is responsible for a good number of the portraits we have of Martin Luther.

Luther's house is now a museum relating Luther's progression from academic to monk to reformer. It holds a great collection of old documents all of which were in German or Latin and in the old German script which made them even harder to read. We did see a very early hymn book with "Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress is our God") in it as well as copy of Luther's own Bible translation.

Luther's House

Katherina von Bora, Luther's Wife

Luther's Pulpit

The whole town is preparing for the 500th anniversary of the nailing of the 95 theses and the start of the reformation, so both the castle church and the city church are covered in scaffolding and hessian. The parts that have been renovated are looking very good though.

CastleChurch

City Church - St Mary's

We ended the day with an English language service in the small chapel next to the Town Church - which of course included the singing of "A Mighty Fortress."

Chapel