Marktkirche

Hanover's old town gathers around the Marktkirche, the main Lutheran church of the city and a landmark of northern German brick Gothic. Together with the market place beside it, the building has shaped the city since the Middle Ages. An older church from 1125 stood here first, and the fourteenth-century building that replaced it still defines the square. A monumental saddleback roof rises over the nave and two aisles of the hall church.

The west tower announced the power and wealth of Hanover's citizens, and it still counts among the highest towers in Lower Saxony. Inside stands the main altar, carved from linden wood around 1480. Its carvings show the Passion of Christ and scenes from the patron saints, George and James. Moved to the Aegidienkirche in 1663 and later to the Welfenmuseum, the altar escaped the wartime destruction and returned in 1952. An air raid destroyed the roof and the vaults in 1943, and the reconstruction of 1952 brought them back. An organ installed in 1893 was lost in the Second World War. The main organ built between 2007 and 2009 carries 64 stops, and some of its pipes are original. The church holds eleven bells, and the Bell of Christ and Peace among them is the largest bell in Lower Saxony. Only on special occasions does that bell sound.

Wheelchair users can explore the interior, and this spot is the starting point for tracing Hanover's medieval roots. Before you go in, look up at the west tower: a pentagram and a hexagram adorn it. Pagans in Germany used those two signs long before Christians adopted them.