St. Mary's Museum | Müntzer Memorial
The impressive St. Mary's Church in Mühlhausen, with its 86.7 m high central tower, is visible far beyond the city limits. The five-aisled hall church was built between 1317 and 1380/90 as the second largest church in Thuringia after Erfurt Cathedral. Its architecture, which is of national importance, combines both Bohemian and southeast German models in its formal language. Between 1895 and 1903, the tower, which had only been provisionally completed since the Middle Ages, was raised by the local building inspector Wilhelm Röttscher to become the highest church tower in Thuringia.
In its function as a Müntzer memorial, museum and meeting place for religion and culture, St. Mary's Church is closely linked to the fate of the city and its citizens. The city council entered and exited through the double portal on the southern transept façade to be sworn in after the election. The stone sculptures of Emperor Charles IV, his wife Elisabeth of Pomerania and two courtiers on the gallery above the portal had the function of accompanying this process symbolically instead of the real people. The world-famous composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) created the so-called Council Change Cantata for the event in 1708 under the title "God is my King".
The exhibition areas in the building, which was secularized in 1975 and has since been used as a museum, offer a wide range of items. For example, a separate area in the chapels is dedicated to the radical reformer and former preacher of St. Mary's Church, Thomas Müntzer.