Marburg: a University Town, Saint Elisabeth's Final Resting Place and the Brothers Grimm

Before we went to Marburg, its appeal for us was two attractions:

• as the place where the Brothers Grimm were professors at the university and,
• the Elisabethkirche, the church built on the grave of St. Elizabeth.

Before we left, we had added a third attraction:

• the picturesque town on the hill
  

We started by getting an overview of the town by going to a look-out point on the hill on the opposite side of the Lahn river. On the hill is a tower built during Germany's Romantic period by a guy of the name Spiegel. The locals call the tower the Spiegelslustturm (literally, Spiegel's passion tower, where "passion" is used in the sense of enjoyment).  From here you can see both the Elisabethkirche and the Landgrave's Palace looking over the town.

We rode a bus up the hill to the Landgrave's Palace.  The ride was a bit nerve-racking, even as as the driver slowly  drove up the steep and narrow streets. Sometimes it seemed like the bus was going to start slipping backwards down the hill!

 The Landgrave's Palace was built in many stages. It started as a castle in the late 800s, and in 911 it belonged to Konrad I, the first Frankish king of East Francia (i.e., Germany) not a member of Charlemagne's descendants.

 It was expanded in four phases over the centuries until it was converted to a palace during the Renaissance period (when castles were becoming obsolete).

It was expanded in two more phases since then, and today it is a museum.

We walked down the hill through the old town below the palace. This was the nicest surprise of the trip. The old town is the site of the old city hall, the old university, and many half-timbered buildings. We started with Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) at Bückingsgarten, which is perched just below the castle and looks out over the town.

Terrace of the Bückingsgarten

Half-timbered buildings in the old town

Old City Hall

Impressive building on the old city market square

We found a building with a plaque stating that Martin Luther stayed here. He must have been very influential, because the university is the oldest protestant university in the world, founded in 1527 during Luther's lifetime. We also found the building where Jacob Grimm lived. The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm also studied and were professors at the university here, making the city a popular stop on the German Fairy Tale Road. The first ever winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine also studied here. The current university buildings were built between 1873 and 1891.

On our second day in Marburg we visited the Elisabethkirche. Who was Elizabeth? We have written about Elisabeth of Hungary in earlier blog posts. To recap, at the age of four, Elizabeth was brought to the court of the rulers of Thuringia in Wartburg, Germany, to be betrothed to Ludwg IV, Landgrave of Thuringia. She was raised by the Thuringian court, surrounded by the local language and culture. In 1221, at the age of fourteen, Elizabeth married Ludwig. In the spring of 1226, when Thuringia suffered floods, famine, and plague, Ludwig went to Italy to represent the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, at the Imperial Diet. Elizabeth, now nineteen years old, assumed control of affairs at home. When Elizabeth was 20, Ludwig died on his way to the sixth crusade, leaving their son Hermann ruler. Ludwig's brother, Heinrich Raspe, assumed regency, and Elizabeth left the Wartburg for Marburg.

the Elisabethkirche

Around 1223, when Elizabeth was sixteen, the priest and later inquisitor, Konrad von Marburg, was appointed as her confessor, and he had great influence over Elizabeth. She began doing good works, such as distributing alms in all parts of their territory, even giving away state robes and ornaments to the poor. Below Wartburg Castle, she built a hospital with twenty-eight beds and visited the inmates daily to attend to them. After moving to Marburg, Elizabeth built another hospital. When she died, she was buried in the chapel of the hospital.

Grave of St. Elizabeth

Very soon after the death of Elizabeth in 1231, miracles were reported that happened at her grave, especially those of healing.  It was here in 1235, the year Elizabeth was canonized, that construction was started on the church by the Order of the Teutonic Knights. Although there were earlier Gothic churches in Germany, such as the one in Trier with a circular plan, the Elisabethkirche is the first Gothic hall church with a nave and two side aisles. The ceiling of the side aisles is the same height as the nave, which characteristic of German Gothic. Another characteristic is the height of the steeples, which took until 1340 to complete. At the crossing of the choirs is a beautiful rood screen.

Nave of the Elisabethkirche

 

The construction of a golden shrine was started in 1235 and ended in 1249 when the bones were moved from the grave to the shrine. The shrine is a masterpiece of the goldsmiths’ art, and it is still the greatest treasure of the Church. The shrine was decorated with over 850 pearls and precious stones, of which three dozen precious stones from the Mediterranean region and the near east were had carved reliefs. (Under Napoleon, 117 stones, a crucifix, and various parts of figures went missing.) The shrine also has exceptionally fine filigree figures and scenes.The long sides show the 12 apostles, and the roof shows 8 reliefs from the life of Elizabeth. Each side has a gable roof with either Jesus, Mary, or Elizabeth. Elizabeth's shrine became one of the main German centers of pilgrimage of the 14th century and early 15th century. It seems to be as large as the shrine of the three kings in the Cologne cathedral!

Elizabeth's shrine

The cult around the relics of Elisabeth was outlawed by her descendant Landgrave Philipp during the Reformation. However, the church was able to keep its relics because it belonged to the Order of Teutonic Knights, which was in turn answerable to the Holy Roman Emperor. In order to drive the pilgrims out of Marburg, the Landgrave allowed the shrine to be broken open on the 18th May 1539 and the bones to be removed. The chief of the Teutonic Knights protested against this, and he insisted that the Statthalter (Governor for the Landgrave) scatter the remains in the Pilgrims’ Cemetery of the Michelchen Church near the Elisabeth Church. But the Governor hid them in his moated fort in Wommen. In 1547, Philipp was arrested by the Emperor after a defeat in the Schmalkalden war. Philipp was able to use the bones of Elisabeth as a ‘bargaining chip’ to secure his release. He ordered that the bones be transferred to Marburg where, after a short stay, they were transported in 1558 to the chapel of the Elisabethine in Vienna.

There is also some beautiful medieval stained glass in the choir of the church. The Elisabeth window is among them. It represents scenes from the legend of St. Elisabeth. One of the best-known legends says that she used to go down the hill to the town bringing bread from the castle to give to the poor. She would hide the basket of bread under her cloak. Once, her husband, who in this version of the story did not approve of her sharing the wealth, demanded to know what was under her cloak. When she opened her cloak, the basket was filled with roses. 

In another legend, she cared for the poor and sick in the castle, even caring for a leper in her own bed. When her husband heard of this, he was upset, running to her bedroom to throw the poor leper out. When he got there, there was only a crucifix in the bed, and he was forced to admit, "Such a guest is always welcome". 

Elisabeth's story and legends are what make the local history interesting. You might remember the story of Empress Kunigunde, the wife of Emperor Heinrich II, who reigned around 1000 AD, who founded the Bishopric of Bamberg and had the Bamberg Cathedral built, just a half-hour's train ride north of us. Empress Kunigunde was also said to have performed miracles during her lifetime. She was worshiped as a saint, and her relics and a tomb depicting her miracles are displayed in the Bamberg Cathedral.

Americans in the US might have folk-tales and tall tales, but there are very few legends about historic women who were so revered as to have generated stories about their supposed sainthood. It is the centuries of recorded history that make the culture so rich here in Europe. The way Christianity formed layers that built on the pagan traditions that existed in Europe prior to 600 AD, gradually becoming more and more orthodox as time went on, is fascinating to learn about. 

Surrounding the Elisabethkirche are other buildings that belonged to the Order of Teutonic Knights.

Deutsches Haus

 

Mineralogy Museum

The oldest university building was impressive. It was actually built in the Gothic style in the 1500s. You know how many American universities have neo-Gothic architecture? They all want to look like this building.

One last mention of the Brothers Grimm. Throughout the city, there is a trail with stations presenting sculptures that represent the stories that the Brothers Grimm collected. As we took a short cut through the old botanical garden, we stopped by a pond that had a fountain merrily splashing away. The picturesque pond had lily pads, and on the lily pads, small fuzzy birds with long legs were skipping from one to the other, peeping as they went. It turned out that the mommy and daddy birds were on shore, while the kids amused themselves in the water. Floating on the pond was a silver fish. The fish represents the Grimms' tale of the fisherman and his wife. The fisherman caught the fish, who granted wishes for the fisherman's wife. She wished herself into a palace because she wanted to live like the emperor, and then decided that it would be better to live like the pope, made the wish, and ended up back in the fisherman's hut.