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Ökumenische Martinsfeier
Domplatz, Erfurt
Martin Luther, the great Reformer, once declared that Erfurt was “in the ideal location, the perfect place for a city”.
Erfurt invites you to a rendezvous in the heart of Germany.
Now the regional capital of Thuringia, it was founded by Boniface in 742 AD and has one of the largest, listed medieval town centres in Germany.
Visitors encounter a delightful combination of fine Patrician town houses and lovingly reconstructed half-timbered buildings as well as the abbeys and churches for which the city became known as the “Rome of Thuringia”. Its skyline is dominated by the towering spires of St. Mary’s Cathedral and the Church of St. Severus on Cathedral Hill. “Gloriosa”, the massive cathedral bell, is more than 500 years old and the biggest free-swinging bell in the world.
Erfurt is Martin Luther‘s spiritual home. In 1501 he enrolled in the philosophical faculty of the city's university, which had been founded in 1379, and in 1505 he was awarded the title of Master of Arts (master of the seven liberal arts). Following his father’s wishes he then started studying law. However after one semester and against his father’s wishes he abandoned his studies and on 17th July 1505 joined the Order of St. Augustine at their monastery in Erfurt. Until the end of 1511 his life as a monk was characterised by a strict and precisely timetabled regime of spiritual and religious rituals, as well as academic study carried out within the order. In 1507 Luther was ordained as a priest in Erfurt Cathedral and held his first mass in the church at St. Augustine’s on 2nd May 1507. Following this he went on to study theology and eventually received his doctorate in Wittenberg in 1512.