Religious site

Wittenberg
Location: Saxony, Germany
Religion: Protestantism
Significance: birthplace of the Protestant Reformation

In 1517, Martin Luther challenged students and clerics in Wittenberg to a debate about
the Catholic Church’s selling of indulgences in exchange for salvation. He wrote the
controversial Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences and
nailed its pages to the door of Castle Church, an act which many regard as having
launched the Protestant Reformation. Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic
Church four years later.

During the Seven Years’ War, much of Wittenberg was destroyed, but Castle Church
was rebuilt in the 1800s and the text of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses was inscribed into
the church’s front doors. Inside the church, Luther’s tomb is joined by the tombs of two
other Protestant thinkers, Phillip Melanchthon and Frederick the Wise. Other Wittenberg
attractions include Luther’s restored house; St Mary’s Church (or City Church) where
Luther preached, was married, and had his children baptized; and the house of Phillip
Melanchthon, Luther’s collaborator. The city has roughly 2 million visitors a year.