Torgau Castle Chapel

On the way back to Berlin from Munich on June 12, 2024, I decided to visit Torgau, which is about 50 km northeast of Leipzig. I reached the city of 20,000 inhabitants by train at around 6:30 p.m. I quickly went to my accommodation, checked in and immediately left the pension to go to the market square. Luck was on my side and I got the last free table in the cafe Katharina, where I enjoyed a cold beer and an excellent meal while the evening sun caressed me with its mild rays. After around an hour I left the market square, walked through the attractive old town past the imposing St. Mary's Church to Hartenfels Castle. I crossed the bridge over the bear pit and arrived at the castle around 8:30 p.m. To my great surprise and delight, the castle chapel was open. There was a notice on the inner door that the castle chapel was only open very irregularly due to a lack of staff. During my approximately 30 minute stay there I was the only visitor...I had the whole church to myself (I guess that you can have a limited view of the interior of the church through the glass cover/glass door 24 hours a day; the outside door was still open at 10:30 p.m., only the glass door was closed).
I then left the castle through a tunnel almost directly next to the chapel entrance to take a few photos of the castle from the nearby …

Hartenfels Castle takes forever to visit. Plan 3 hours if you want to see all including hanging out at the bear cage. I actually think the castle would be better world heritage than the castle chapel but it is ONLY the chapel within the walls that wants to be inscribed, well noted by the ticket seller here, and it is free to visit. So if you just want to see the chapel it will take you a lot less time.

Martin Luther (maybe you know him for translating the bible but who knows) is credited for how the church looks like, and in fact how ALL evangelist churches should look like. There is a document (not here) that describes this better. If the document would be on display I would like to have this incribed but without and being VERY renovated I am totally against it. There is one corner of the original church that seems to fit the bill but the rest is modern and not worth seeing. I enjoyed the bears sitting around more than the church.