Georgenkirche

St. George's Church (Georgenkirche) is a medieval church in Eisenach connected with both Martin Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach.

The present church is a Late Gothic successor of an earlier church, in which Landgrave Ludwig IV married the Hungarian princess now known as St. Elisabeth.

Martin Luther was a choir boy at Georgenkirche while he lived in Eisenach (1498-1501) and later preached here 1521 on his journey to and from the imperial parliament in Worms. The church became Protestant and adaptations were accordingly made to the building, most notably the addition of tiered galleries.

Bach was baptized at St. George's on March 23, 1685, and several members of the musically-gifted Bach family were organists here.

Today, the Georgenkirche is the cathedral of the Lutheran diocese of Thuringia.

The north wall of the church bears a large painting commissioned to commemorate the Reformation: it depicts Luther, the Bohemian reformer Jan Hus and the Augsburg Confession.

The walls also bear a number of 14th-century epitaphs commemorating Ludowingian Landgraves who ruled from the Wartburg. Ludwig I (known as Ludwig der Springer because he jumped from a prison window) can be seen behind the altar to the right holding a model of Eisenach's first church.

There is a statue of Bach in the entrance hall and outside the church is a 16th-century statue of St. George, the patron of the church, slaying a dragon.