The large Churches of Eilenburg

The Marien church of Eilenburg

This church's name is older than the City of Eilenburg as it marks a place of worship dedicated to St. Marien on the mountain in front of the burgward of "Ilburg", which means 'clay castle'. This burgward, which was a form of settlement used for the organisation of the northeastern marches of the Kingdom of Germany in the mid-10th century, was established along with the burgward of Wurzen around 907. A small chapel was also built for the burgward occupants. A small Sorbian hamlet, Zscheppelende, was situated in front of the burgward and as the monks began to evangelize this hamlet it became painfully obvious that a church was missing, but the Sorbians were not allowed inside of the burgward for safety reasons. For this reason the first Marien-chapel was erected in 940. Documents indicate that a larger "Mountain Church" was built on the Leipziger plateau around 999, also out of wood, which replaced the small wooden chapel.

The Nikolai church of Eilenburg

The Nikolai church is one of the oldest known churches in the area and also happens to be the oldest standing structure in downtown Eilenburg. Supposedly the first church building was constructed on this very spot around 970/980. The church and its surrounding cemetery were rededicated in 1404 but sadly were destroyed by a large fire in 1435 and again in 1535. On top of these tragedies the seemingly constant floods (in 1413, 1434, 1573, 1771, and 1854) only made the situation even more of a nightmare.  
In 1617 Martin Rinckart, born and raised in Eilenburg, became archdeacon of the St. Nikolai church and saved the city from being plundered and destroyed by Swedish troops in 1639. He wrote the still well-known chorus: "Nun danket alle Gott" ("Let us all thank the Lord"). The church was once again bombed to ruins in 1945 and its reconstruction is still an ongoing process.

The Catholic church of Eilenburg

After the last catholic priest was forced to leave in 1525, catcholicism only began to flourish again after 1777. At first the Sunday services took place in the Zschepplin castle and were attended mainly by believers in Eilenburg and the surrounding areas.  From time to time they were even held in the protestant Nikolai church. On the 28th of September, 1853, however, the catholics in Eilenburg were able to celebrate the dedication of their own place of worship on Bernhardistrasse, which is still in use today.