The Church Of St. Thomas Photo: Church Of St. Thomas

The Church of St. Thomas is one of the oldest churches of Leipzig, which is known due to the fact that in 1539 in this stately preached by Martin Luther, the "father" of the reformation. In the XVIII century during the thirty years it served as the Cantor of the local choir, the famous German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Here it is prayed that the remains of the great composer was moved here in 1949 and is buried under a bronze tombstone.

As a result of earlier archaeological excavations, it was found that on the site of the Church of St. Thomas previously occupied by a Romanesque Church, Dating back to the XII century. Some of the fragments represented by the parts of the Foundation date back to the year 1160 and stored in the altar of the Church. In 1355, the ancient temple was rebuilt in the Gothic style.

After the Church was expecting some more changes, but from the end of XV century and for four hundred years it remained unchanged, with the exception of one of the towers, which was rebuilt in 1702. The Church roof has a pretty steep angle, reaching 63 degrees, among of internal furniture nothing remained of interior is in the Baroque style, as a result of reconstruction of the XIX century it was replaced by neo-Gothic decor.

Inside the St. Thomas Church there is a marble font with images of various biblical scenes, performed by Franz Datebean. On the walls of the altar are historical portraits of pastors of the city, the earliest of which date back to the year 1614. The carved wooden pulpit is one of the few things that survived from the times of Bach's lifetime. The temple also has a tombstone era XV-XVI centuries, the oldest of which belongs to the knight Hermann von Harass.

In the military actions of the 40-ies of XX century, the Church of St. Thomas, practically have not suffered. Lost only one stained glass window of the Church, which was replaced in 2000 for a new one, created by the architect Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen.

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