Lucas Cranach the Elder

The Protestant Reformation reshaped Weimar from the 16th century onward. Lutheranism was introduced in 1525, with reformer Martin Luther himself visiting Weimar multiple times. After the Ernestine Wettin Duke Johann Frederick I ("the Magnanimous") was defeated in 1547, he made Weimar the capital of his diminished territories upon returning from captivity in 1552. Weimar then remained the ducal residence of Saxe-Weimar for centuries. Under ducal patronage, the city saw a renaissance bloom: new palaces and gardens were built, including the early phases of the City Castle (Schloss) and the addition of Renaissance-era noble houses around the Market Square. The 17th century brought hardships (e.g. the Thirty Years' War) that caused economic decline, yet Weimar slowly recovered as an absolutist court in the early 1700s. Notably, from 1708 to 1717 Johann Sebastian Bach worked in Weimar as court organist, composing many pieces. Duchess Anna Amalia's regency (1758–1775) fostered the Enlightenment in Weimar, inviting poets and building the Duchess Anna Amalia Library (est. 1766). By the late 18th century, Weimar was poised for a cultural golden age. This era of religious change and ducal consolidation laid the foundation for Weimar's emergence as a center of German intellectual life.