A short distance from Zum Coffe Baum is our next goal for the day the Thomaskirche/St. Thomas Church. Built in the 13th century as a Catholic church it was a place where Luther preached and now it is a Lutheran Church. However it is most famous for the fact that composer Johann Sebastian Bach was a Thomaskantor, director of music, here from 1723 until his death in 1750. It is quite an impressive church from the outside and the plaza is quite beatiful too, we especially like the golden bank building on one corner that is under renovation right now.
There is also a cafe here with the famous Leipziger Lerche and a few other specialty sweets where we return later and buy to have something to eat the next breakfast.
The church is free to enter and as we enter we are surprised that it seems there is a pipe organ recital ongoing. In fact it is a choir and pipe organ recital and we feel quite lucky that we made it inside just as the recital was happening.
We move around the church as quietly as possible and make our way towards the altar which is closed off and at first we do not understand why but then we notice that here is one of the major attraction in the church, the burial place of Johann Sebastian Bach, the great composer.
After paying our respects to Bach we turn around and continue exploring the church. Besides the beautiful ceiling, the altar and the pulpit it is quite sparsely decorated, typical of Lutheran churches.
We then find a few pamphlets and understand it is actually Bach week and that the music is not the recital but a rehearsal for the recital later in the evening. Still it is quite cool to hear this orchestra for free, in the evening it would cost a lot of money we assume.
And then we are out and start exploring the remaining area surrounding the church. There are multiple additional statues here we want to see like the one of Bach right in front of the cathedral.
However even more interesting is the other Bach statue, called the Old Bach statue. It is much older from 1843 and initiated/donated by composer Felix Mendelssohn. In fact it is the world’s oldest monument dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach and it is fitting given its history that it sits right next to a monument to Mendelssohn. And now it is time to move to the next attraction the Central Square of Leipzig.
