Wartburg Castle

Above Eisenach in central Germany, about two hours northeast of Frankfurt, the Wartburg crowns a forested ridge. Founded around 1067, it is a hilltop fortress where one book changed Europe. In 1521 Martin Luther hid here as Junker Jörg after challenging the Catholic Church, and in about eleven weeks translated the New Testament into German. Ordinary Germans could read the Bible themselves for the first time, breaking the Church's hold on scripture, and because his Bible was printed and read across dialect regions, it gave Germans a common written language and shaped modern German. In 1817 students gathered here for the Wartburg Festival, calling for a united Germany when the land was split into dozens of states. On Advent weekends, a historic Christmas market fills its courtyards.