Strasbourg

The Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune church in Strasbourg, wall paintings © Jean-Marie Stocker

Strasbourg, as a free imperial town, was a beacon for Protestantism right from the 16th century. As from 1523, Protestant celebrations began in old churches that welcomed the new liturgical form and preaching inspired by Martin Luther's thesis. This was centred on a Gospel accessible to all, on a faith abolishing any distinction between laymen and clerics and on a Church integrated in the town community. In 1529, the town government decided to abolish traditional mass and introduce more simple celebrations.

It all started in the Cathedral.

THE SAINTE-AURÉLIE CHURCH

The Saint-Aurelie church was the market gardeners' parish, the first to become Protestant. Martin Bucer was its pastor from 1524 to 1530. In 1765 its nave was completely rebuilt, based on the architectural principal that the prayer room should be centred around the pulpit and the altar.
 

THE SAINT-THOMAS CHURCH

The site on which the current church stands was used as a place of worship under the patronage of Thomas the Apostle as early as the sixth century. In the ninth century, Bishop Adelochus established a magnificent church with adjoining school. However both burned down in 1007, and again in 1144. In 1196, construction began on the façade of a new, fortress-like building with an imposing steeple, built in the Roman style. Interrupted several times, the building work was completed in 1521, in the late Gothic style.
In 1524, the church became Protestant (Martin Bucer served there as a pastor from 1531 to 1540), a status which it maintained despite the annexation of Alsace to Catholic France.
The Saint Thomas church is a five-naved hall church, the oldest on the territory of former south-west Germany. Inside it is approximately 65 metres long and 30 metres wide, with a height of 22m (30m under the late-Gothic cupola). There is a gallery on the left outer aisle, and chapels to the right and left of the apse

The church is internationally renowned for its historic and musically-significant organs: the 1741 Silbermann organ, played by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1778 and faithfully restored in 1979 by Alfred Kern; the French organist Louis Thiry recorded the Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach on this organ. Another organ is the 1905 organ (installed in 1906) built by Fritz Haerpfer, following a design by Albert Schweitzer.

The funerary monuments at Saint Thomas church date from between 1130 and 1850. The most famous are the richly decorated sarcophagus of Bishop Adelochus (1130) and the huge, late-Baroque mausoleum of Marshall Maurice de Saxe (1777), created by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. Among the many other remarkable funerary monuments, the Renaissance tombstone of Nikolaus Roeder von Tiersberg (1510) is notable for its realistic depiction of his decaying corpse. Roeder had been the donor of the life-size Mount of Olives group of sculptures (1498) now to be seen inside Strasbourg Cathedral. The Neoclassical sculptor, Landolin Ohmacht, is represented by two works, one of them dedicated to Jean-Frédéric Oberlin.

THE SAINT-PIERRE-LE-JEUNE CHURCH

Built from the end of the 13th century to the beginning of the 14th century, this church is one of Strasbourg's most inspiring buildings. Restored around 1900, its mural paintings go back to the Middle Age.
The church became Protestant in 1524. Then in 1683, when the chancel was given to a Catholic parish, a wall was built behind the jube, dividing the church. After the Catholics' departure in 1893, the furniture in the chancel was kept. The cloister, recently restored and where the remains of columns dating from the 11th century can still be admired, offers a haven of peace.

THE SAINT-GUILLAUME CHURCH

The church of Saint Guillaume used to be a convent church. In 1544, the buildings adjacent to the church were given to the Collegium Wilhelmitanum to accommodate about forty students from the Gymnasium. The church is known for its beautiful pulpit and alter, but also for the funerary monument of the Landgraves of Werde and its 19th century stained glass windows. Do not miss the concert given there every Good Friday, with Jean-Sébastien Bach's Saint John or Saint Matthew's Passion cantatas.

THE TEMPLE NEUF

Built on the site of the old Dominican church, it was destroyed in 1870 during the bombing of the town. Its sandstone architecture is in the Romanesque style. On its Northern side you'll find the « Gymnase Jean Sturm » a Secondary School, that replaced the former Secondary School started by the Reformers in 1538, then the university established in 1621. While living in Strasbourg (1538-1541), Jean Calvin celebrated services for French-speaking Protestant refugees in its oratory.

Mathias Zell (1477-1548), a priest and popular preacher in the Cathedral since 1518, started to preach in 1521 in line with Luther's ideas, drawing a very large audience. Zell baptized in German and distributed Communion in both forms as from 1524. After publishing his « Christliche Verantwortung » apologetics for the Christian faith (1523), the first Reformed writings in Strasbourg, he influenced Martin Bucer and Wolfgang Capiton, who would become the town's well-known Reformers. He was also the first cleric of Strasbourg to marry, with Catherine Schütz (1497 – 1562), who actively supported him. The Cathedral was given back to the Catholic church in 1681, when Louis XIV annexed Strasbourg.
 

Caspar Hedio (1494-1552) was also a preacher at the Cathedral from 1523 to 1550. He helped introducing and organizing the Reformation in Strasbourg by setting up the school system and creating the Saint-Guillaume boarding school in 1544, the ancestor of the present Protestant Seminary. He got involved in charity programs that began in the Reformation and he was also very tolerant towards non-Christians, and respectful of their culture.
 

Wolfgang Fabricius Köpfel, known Capito, was the first pastor of St-Pierre-le-Jeune. He was born around 1478 in Haguenau and after studying law and medicine, he took up theology. In 1514 he taught at the university of Basel, then became the preacher at the Imperial Court of Mayence. In 1523 he was called to Strasbourg, married and committed himself to the Protestant Reformation. Along with Martin Bucer, he wrote the Tetrapolitan Confession, then later on the Church of Bern's confession of faith. He was also one of the authors of the Wittenberg Concord (an attempted resolution of Lutheran and Reformed differences with respect to the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist). Known as a peace-maker, he also received in Strasbourg « dissident » theologians. He died of the plague in 1542.
 

Martin Bucer (1491-1551) was the main Reformer in Strasbourg, whose influence spread all around Europe. He strongly tried to safeguard unity between the lutheran and reformed doctrines and practices.
Bucer was originally a member of the Dominican Order, but after meeting and being influenced by Martin Luther in 1518 he arranged for his monastic vows to be annulled. He then began to work for the Reformation, with the support of Franz von Sickingen. He acted as a mediator between the two leading reformers, Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli, who differed on the doctrine of the eucharist. Later, Bucer sought agreement on common articles of faith such as the Tetrapolitan Confession and the Wittenberg Concord, working closely with Philipp Melanchthon on the latter. Bucer believed that the Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire could be convinced to join the Reformation. Through a series of conferences organised byCharles V, he tried to unite Protestants and Catholics to create a German national church separate from Rome. He did not achieve this, as political events led to the Schmalkaldic War and the retreat of Protestantism within the Empire. In 1548, Bucer was persuaded, under duress, to sign the Augsburg Interim, which imposed certain forms of Catholic worship. However, he continued to promote reforms until the city of Strasbourg accepted the Interim, and forced him to leave. In 1549, Bucer was exiled to England, where, under the guidance of Thomas Cranmer, he was able to influence the second revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
 

Jean Sturm was a German humanist who studied in Leuven and in Paris. He was called by Martin Bucer to Strasbourg in 1537 to teach Rhetoric and Dialectic. With support from the town government, he helped set up the Protestant Secondary School, then became the Headmaster of the school from 1538 to 1582. Being also a diplomat, he asked the German Protestant princes to support the French-speaking Protestants. Upholding views closer to Ulrich Zwingli's, the Swiss Reformer, than to Luther's, he was relieved of his position after the stricter enforcement of the Lutheran confession in Strasbourg. He retired in Nordheim.
 

Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck (1489-1553) (unrelated to Jean Sturm) was a humanistic aristocrat who adopted the principles of the Protestant Reformation. He became one of the most pre-eminent statesmen among the free imperial towns and an influential diplomat over all of Europe. As Strasbourg's « Stettmeister » (burgomaster), he became the most powerful man of the town, supporting the restructuring of schools, establishing the Protestant Secondary School and also protecting the Reformers. In 1548, however, he had to submit to the Interim issued be the emperor Charles V and send back Martin Bucer.