St Thomas Church, Thomaskirche, where Bach was Director of Music between 1723 and 1750 in Leipzig Saxony Germany
Thomaskirche was built as part of a 13th-century monastery, but now stands on its own. Its tall roof dates from 1496, and the church was heavily restored after World War II. Martin Luther preached here on Whitsunday 1539, signaling the arrival of Protestantism in Leipzig. Bach's 12 children and the infant Richard Wagner were baptized in the early 17th-century font, and both Mozart and Mendelssohn performed here. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels also stood before this same font as godfathers to Karl Liebknecht, who grew up to be a revolutionary as well. Bach was choirmaster at this Gothic church for 27 years. The great music Bach wrote during his Leipzig years commanded little attention in his lifetime, and when he died, he was given a simple grave, without a headstone, in the city's Johannisfriedhof (St. John Cemetery). It wasn't until 1894 that an effort was made to find where the great composer lay buried. After a thorough and macabre search his coffin was removed to the Johanniskirche. That church was destroyed by Allied bombs in December 1943, and Bach subsequently found his final resting place in the church he surely would have selected: the Thomaskirche. Bach was a member of and wrote most of his cantatas for the church's famous boys' choir, the Thomanerchor (St. Thomas Boys' Choir), which was founded in the 13th century. In the Middle Ages, the boys sang on every occasion – city celebrations, the installation of bishops, and even executions. Today, Thomaskirche continues as the Thomanerchor's home as well as a center of Bach tradition. Choirboys still follow an almost medieval regime within a distinctive subculture that's a world unto itself. Each newcomer is assigned a "mentor" from among the trusted older members of the choir, and all members are required to eat, sleep, study, and rehearse according to a semimonastic regimen.
Size: 3600px × 5400px
Location: Leipzig Saxony Germany
Photo credit: © PHOTOBYTE / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: architecture, bach, baroque, blue, bombed, bombers, britain, british, building, buildings, cantor, church, city, democratic, destroyed, gdr, german, germany, historic, huge, johann, leipzig, luther, martin, mozart, music, ornate, protestant, rebuilt, reformation, religion, republic, romanesque, saint, saxony, sebastian, st, sun, sunny, sunshine, thomas, thomaskirche, urban, war, white, world, ww2
