Elisabeth Church

The Elisabeth Church in Marburg was built in the honor of Elisabeth of Hungary. Her grave made the church an important pilgrimage destination for the tourist. This church is popular since the late middle ages. The Elisabeth Church is one of the purely earliest Gothic churches in Germany.

The construction of the Elisabeth Church started in 1235. In this year Elisabeth was glorified. However, the towers of the church were not finished until 1340. The church was the property of the Order of the Teutonic Knights. Near the church, still now you can find some buildings of the Order. Among them, now the Deutschhausgut is the house of mineral collection and the department of geography of the Philipps University of Marburg.

The Elisabeth Church was built from sandstone. The nave and its lying gangways have a domed ceiling. The ceiling is more than 20 m high. The triple quire of the Elisabeth Church consists of the Elisabeth quire, the High quire and the Landgrave quire.The Elisabeth Church has two towers. The towers are 80 m high. The northern tower of the Elisabeth Church is crowned by a star, and the southern one is crowned by knight. The Gothic shrine of Saint Elisabeth is the most important gem of the church. In the Elisabeth Church you can also find some other pieces of sacral art.

Until the 16th century, the Landgraves of Hesse were buried in the church. In the context of the Reformation, the Landgraves of Hesse which had the remains of Saint Elisabeth was removed. The main motive was to boot out the pilgrims from the Protestant city of Marburg. Today, the relics of Elisabeth you can be find in the Elisabeth convent in Vienna. It is the City Museum in Stockholm. Most of the monks converted to Protestantism during the 16th century in Germany. From then onwards, the church was used for Protestant services. After the end of World War II, former German president Paul von Hindenburg and his wife were buried in the Elisabeth church.