On one of my road trips around Germany, I made a short afternoon stop in the city of Marburg. Besides the castle, the cityscape is dominated by Saint Elizabeth’s Church (Elisabethkirche). It is one of the earliest gothic churches in Germany with construction beginning in the year 1235 by the Order of the Teutonic Knights in honor of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.
St. Elizabeth’s tomb is in the church and is a place of pilgrimage. Saint Elizabeth dedicated her life to the sick and would become after her early death in 1231, aged 24, one of the most prominent female saints of the era. She was canonized in 1235.
(St. Elizabeth Church)
Originally a Catholic church, the knights and clerics of the Order who were attached to the church converted to Protestantism during the 16th century, and the church was used for Protestant services from that point on. The church was used as the model for the construction of the famous Cologne (Köln) Cathedral which is Germany’s most visited landmark.
Marburg was first mentioned in the year 822 and became a town in 1222. It gained importance by being at the crossroads of two important medieval trade routes.
(Marburg castle)
The Marburger Schloss (or Marburg castle), aka Landgrafenschloss Marburg is located on a hill overlooking the city. It can be seen in the background of my photo. Originally built as a fort in the 11thcentury, it was later used as a royal residence and since 1981 has been a cultural museum associated with the city university.
The Altstadt (Old City) is crammed with many beautiful half-timbered buildings and a delightful location for a relaxing stroll and photo ops.
A few interesting tidbits about Marburg:
– Resident ophthalmologist Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick invented the contact lens.
– In 2008 a law was passed to make the installation of solar systems on new or renovated buildings mandatory.
– Brothers Grimm collected many of their fairy tales here. The best-known illustrations for the fairy tale editions are by the painter Otto Ubbelohde, who also lived in and near Marburg. The original building inspiring his drawing Rapunzel’s Tower stands in Amönau near Marburg. Across the Lahn hills, in the area called Schwalm, the costumes of little girls included a red hood.
– The city is also known for the Marburg virus, a viral hemorrhagic which in 1967, workers were accidentally exposed to infected green monkey tissue at the city’s former industrial plant. Seven of 31 infected died.
– Resident Emil Adolf von Behring won the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901 for the development of serum therapies against diphtheria.
– Marburg is the seat of the oldest existing Protestant-founded university in the world, the University of Marburg founded in 1527.
