Elisabethkirche

The Elisabethkirche is the oldest purely Gothic church in German-speaking lands, begun in 1235 in the year of St Elisabeth's canonisation and completed around 1290. It is remarkable inside: slim columns, pale stone, and unusually large windows for its era that flood the nave with light. The building was revolutionary for its time and influenced church construction across central Europe.

The church is still a pilgrimage site. Elisabeth's golden reliquary shrine — the Goldene Madonna — is one of the masterpieces of medieval German goldsmithing. In the northern transept you'll find the memorial to the Landgraves of Hesse, and scattered through the church are the tombs of various figures from the region's history. After World War II, the remains of Hindenburg and the Hohenzollern kings Frederick William I and Frederick the Great were transferred here from Potsdam and kept until 1991, when they were reburied in their original resting places.

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A story
When Elisabeth of Hungary died in 1231 at the age of 24, she had already given away most of her wealth to the poor and was working as a hospital nurse. She was canonised just four years later — one of the fastest canonisations in history — and pilgrims began arriving in Marburg almost immediately. The church was built to house her shrine, and for centuries the golden reliquary containing her skull was the most visited pilgrimage destination in German lands north of the Alps.