Wittenberg

A woodcarving by Lucas Cranach of the church at Wittenberg. It was on the door of this church that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses criticizing the Roman Catholic Church in 1517.

Town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, on the River Elbe, southwest of Berlin; population (2005 est) 46,600. Wittenberg University was founded in 1502, but transferred to Halle in 1815. The town became the cradle of the Reformation in the early 16th century. The Protestant reformer Martin Luther preached in the Stadtkirche (in which he is buried), nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Schlosskirche in 1517, and taught Philosophy at the university.

The artists Lucas Cranach, father and son, lived here.

The late Gothic Castle Church, the Schlosskirche, was originally built in 1500–1517; it was seriously damaged in the Seven Years War (1756–63), and was substantially altered in 1883–92. The oldest church is the aisled Gothic church of St Mary, which dates from the 13–15th centuries. The Schloss (1490–1525), once the residence of the Electors of Saxony-Wittenburg (Sachsen-Wittenberg), now houses the Julius Riemer Museum of Natural History and Ethnography, Municipal Archives, and a museum of local history. Martin Luther's house now houses the Museum of the Reformation. There is also a fine Rathhaus (town hall) dating from 1524–40, and Market Fountain (1617).