All Saints' Castle Church (Schlosskirche)
The door where the Reformation began — and where Luther is buried.
Overview
The Schlosskirche of Wittenberg is the parish church of the elector of Saxony and — far more famously — the site where, on 31 October 1517, the Augustinian friar and university professor Martin Luther is said to have posted his Ninety-five Theses against the sale of indulgences. That single act is the traditional origin-point of the Protestant Reformation.
Though small compared to Rome or Canterbury, this modest Gothic church on the edge of a German town reshaped Western Christianity more profoundly than perhaps any other building of its age.
Historical significance
Wittenberg in the early 16th century was a frontier university town. Luther had been teaching biblical theology there since 1508. The 95 Theses were academic propositions in Latin, intended to provoke a scholarly debate about penance and indulgences — the sale of which was helping to finance the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Instead, printed and circulated rapidly, they ignited a continental firestorm.
The Schlosskirche became the symbolic birthplace of the Lutheran Reformation. Luther is buried beneath the pulpit; his colleague and friend Philipp Melanchthon lies across from him. The original wooden doors were destroyed in the Seven Years' War; today a bronze door commissioned in 1858 bears the text of the 95 Theses in Latin.
Architecture
The church combines a late-medieval Gothic shell with a thorough Neo-Gothic interior restoration carried out between 1885 and 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Luther's birth. The tall slender tower, added during the restoration, bears the Lutheran motto "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" — "A mighty fortress is our God" — in iron letters around its base.
Inside are statues of the reformers and patrons of the Reformation, Luther's and Melanchthon's grave slabs in the floor of the nave, and the pulpit from which early Reformation sermons were preached.
Notable figures
- Martin LutherPosted the 95 Theses on this door in 1517; buried here in 1546
- Philipp MelanchthonLuther's closest collaborator; buried across the nave
- Frederick the WiseElector of Saxony who protected Luther at the Wartburg
- Lucas Cranach the ElderPainter of Reformation-era Wittenberg; depicted Luther many times
Related doctrines
Visiting
Open daily as a Lutheran parish church and historical site. Services are held in German; the adjacent Lutherhaus museum preserves the reformer’s personal belongings.