Today is Reformation Day. It was on this day 497 years ago that Martin Luther attached his list of issues to the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

As I did last year in my post Reformation Day II, I will add a few more pictures from Wartburg which is where Martin Luther went into hiding after his excommunication. For more, see Reformation Day

When I visited Wartburg about 12 years ago it was wintertime and we had to follow a path up through snowy hills to the top of the hill.

In the picture above you can see the sign pointing the way.

You can see that the path was a bit treacherous. To me though it was a beautiful day. I like to walk through areas of new fallen snow, it can be so beautiful. I could also imagine Martin Luther being brought to Wartburg along the same path when he went into hiding.

Once we got to the top of the hill and inside Wartburg, it was nice to look at the interesting architecture. I really liked the different half-timbered buildings. Especially with the snow on the roof.

For a nice overview of the Wartburg complex, see my post: Anker Wartburg

Here is the South Tower at Wartburg. The gray sky and the fog made for an interesting picture. Almost black and white, but you can see a bit of color in the tower.

This tower also has some religious history. There is a dungeon in this tower. From 1540 until his death in 1548 one of the occupants of the dungeon was an Anabaptist farmer named Fritz Erbe. He was imprisoned for refusing to have his child baptized.

Here is a picture of the upper story of the Palace. The hall is massive and the ceiling is very high. As you can imagine the acoustics in the hall are incredible. While we were on our tour of the hall a small group of young men came into the hall. They were members of an acapella group that was touring Germany and they sang a few short songs to test the acoustics of the hall. It was amazing.

I would really like to visit Wartburg again someday. The place is so full of history. I would definitely like to take some pictures with a better camera.

I always take time to think about the Reformation on this day, but I also think about how it is more important to restore than it is to reform.

Steven