Stadtkirche St. Michael
About This Site
The Stadtkirche St. Michael is Jena's main church, a late Gothic hall church begun in 1380 and completed in the sixteenth century, one of the largest of its kind in Thuringia, with a long show front and a tower visible far along the Saale valley.[1][2] Inside stand the stone pulpit from which Martin Luther preached in 1524 and 1529, and Luther's bronze grave plate, cast for his tomb in Wittenberg and given to the University of Jena in 1571 by a Weimar duke.[1] Two of the Seven Wonders of Jena belong to the church: the Angelus jenensis, a carved archangel of around 1240, and the vaulted passage that runs beneath the altar, once the only way to the convent behind the church.[2][1]
From two older churches to a great hall church, 11th century–1557
Two Romanesque churches stood here before the present one; excavations point to a church of the eleventh or early twelfth century inside a cemetery laid out as early as the seventh or eighth century, and remains can be seen in the crypt beneath the choir. The hall church was begun in 1380, after the Rathaus was finished. By 1450 the choir, the vault over the altar, the three eastern bays of the nave and the south front up to the sixth bay stood; after a pause of some thirty years a second phase from 1474 to 1557 completed the nave and raised the tower, built by the town council and at its cost.[2] The new church rose on the trade road from Erfurt to Altenburg, and its long, representative front must have impressed every traveller.[3]
The archangel and the passage under the altar, c. 1240–1301
The church's most important work of art is the Angelus jenensis, the archangel Michael with lance, sword and dragon, carved of lime and oak around 1240 in a Bamberg workshop; Michael has been the patron of the town as well as the church since the thirteenth century, and in the old verse of Jena's wonders, Angelus, Ara, Caput, Mons, Pons, Vulpecula Turris, the angel came first.[2] Another of the wonders, the Ara, is the vaulted passage beneath the altar, 3.5 metres high and 3 metres wide, a great rarity in church architecture: it was the only way to the Cistercian convent founded behind the church in 1301.[1]
Portals, the nuns' gallery and the ducal crypt, Middle Ages–17th century
The south front, the show side of the church, has two doorways: the court portal and, further east, the richly decorated bridal portal. In the Middle Ages weddings counted as worldly acts and were held in front of the bridal door, after which the priest led the couple into the church for the wedding mass. The north gallery was reserved for the nuns of the neighbouring convent, and a confessional window there joins two small rooms, one reached from the nuns' side and one from the church. Beneath the choir lies a lower church whose northern part served as the burial vault of the dukes of Saxe-Jena at the end of the seventeenth century.[2]
Luther's pulpit, 1524 and 1529
The stone pulpit dates from before 1507, and from it Martin Luther preached several times in 1524 and 1529, helping to spread the Reformation in Jena.[2][3] With the Reformation the interior changed fundamentally, as altars, images and other furnishings were removed or reshaped.[3]
A grave plate made in Erfurt, kept in Weimar, given to Jena, 1546–1571
After Luther's death on 18 February 1546, Elector Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous commissioned the Erfurt bronze founder Heinrich Ciegeler the Younger to make a bronze epitaph for his grave in Wittenberg's castle church, most likely after a woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder; it was cast in Erfurt in 1548, and the carved wooden model is still in Erfurt's Andreaskirche. By then the elector had lost the war of 1547 and Wittenberg with it, and his sons had the plate taken to Weimar, their residence. In 1571 Duke Johann Wilhelm gave it to the University of Jena, where Luther's legacy would in his view be kept pure; set up in St. Michael as a temporary home, it has stayed there ever since, while Wittenberg received a cast in 1872.[4]
Organs and bells, 1706–1963
In 1706 Georg Christoph Stertzing built a new organ of three manuals and 44 stops under the direction of the organist and composer Johann Nikolaus Bach, and Max Reger was among the church's later organists. Wilhelm Sauer's organ of 1909, with 92 stops on four manuals then the largest organ in central Germany, was destroyed in the bombing of March 1945; today's organ, the fourth, was built in 1963 by Alexander Schuke of Potsdam and has 51 stops. The five bells were cast in 1947 by the Schilling foundry in Apolda and ring out the Parsifal motif from Richard Wagner.[2]
Destroyed and restored, 1945–2014
Like the whole town centre, the church was badly destroyed in the Second World War. Until 1956 the interior was rebuilt with eight-sided piers and star vaults under the Jena architect Hans Schlag; in memory of the destruction of 19 March 1945 the vault on the tower side was made plainer, while the undamaged eastern nave keeps its richer vault with gilded keystones. From 1996 the church was restored to its mid-sixteenth-century form: the tower regained its Renaissance cap, celebrated on 26 May 2000, the baroque mansard roof and the façades followed between 2002 and 2007, and the bridal portal was restored until 2014, its arch field given a modern, partly transparent glass design by Christine Triebsch.[2] Today the church is a protected monument.[3]
The town's main church, today
St. Michael has been the centre of the town's church life for more than 750 years and is the main preaching church of the Jena church district, with regular services, times of prayer and silence, and church music; its tower can be climbed.[2][1]
Questions visitors ask
- Why is Luther's grave plate in Jena and not in Wittenberg?
- It was cast in Erfurt in 1548 for Luther's grave in Wittenberg, but after the Schmalkaldic War the sons of Elector Johann Friedrich took it to Weimar, and in 1571 Duke Johann Wilhelm gave it to the University of Jena; it has been in St. Michael ever since, and Wittenberg received a cast in 1872.[4]
- Did Martin Luther preach in St. Michael?
- Yes. He preached several times from the stone pulpit, which dates from before 1507, in 1524 and 1529.[2][3]
- Which of the Seven Wonders of Jena are in the church?
- The Angelus jenensis, the carved archangel Michael of around 1240, and the Ara, the vaulted passage beneath the altar that once led to the convent behind the church.[2][1]
- How old is the Stadtkirche?
- The hall church was begun in 1380 and completed with its tower in 1557; two Romanesque churches stood on the site before it, and remains of them can be seen in the crypt.[2]
- Can I visit the church and climb the tower?
- Yes. The church is open daily and its tower can be climbed; see the visitor details for the current hours during the restoration work.[1]
Connected Historical Figures
reformer • theologian • preacher
Luther preached from its stone pulpit in 1524 and 1529, and the bronze grave plate cast for his Wittenberg tomb has been kept here since 1571.
duke • elector
He commissioned the bronze grave plate for Luther that his son Johann Wilhelm gave to the University of Jena in 1571, now in this church.
Sources (4)
- Stadtkirche St. Michael — JenaKultur / Visit Jena, retrieved 13 September 2026
- St. Michael (Jena) — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Stadtkirche St. Michael — Kulturdenkmale in Jena (JenaKultur), retrieved 13 September 2026
- Epitaph für Martin Luther — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
Visit Information
Open daily 10:00–17:00. Restoration work is in progress; the areas open to visitors are signposted at the church.
Kirchplatz 1, 07743 Jena
In the history of Jena
Around Weimar
19 km East
Jena's main church, a late Gothic hall church in the old town, with Luther's pulpit and his bronze grave plate.