Where Luther hid and Bach was born — the Wartburg, the Protestant Reformation's mountain refuge
Eisenach sits at the northwestern edge of the Thuringian Forest in western Thuringia, dominated by the Wartburg Castle on its 410m basalt crag above the city. The Wartburg is Germany's most significant medieval castle for two reasons: it was the court of the Ludowingian Landgraves who patronised Minnesang poetry and the legend of Elisabeth of Hungary (who lived here in 1211–1227 CE and was canonised as a saint), and it was where Martin Luther hid in disguise as 'Junker Jörg' from May 1521 to March 1522 following the Diet of Worms, translating the New Testament from Greek into German in ten we…
The Wartburg was founded around 1067 CE by Ludwig the Springer of the Ludowingian dynasty and served as the seat of the Thuringian Landgraves through the 12th and 13th centuries, a period that produced the Sängerkrieg (legendary song contest between Minnesingers) and the court of Elisabeth of Thuringia. After the Ludowingian dynasty ended (1247), the castle fell into disrepair before being comprehensively restored in the 19th century under Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who commissioned the fresco cycles and the museum rooms. Wagner saw the Wartburg as the setting for his…