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in differing styles, reminiscent in the east of late
Romanesque and in the west of late Gothic. Originally
two smaller medieval churches stood here, St. Gertrude
in the west and the 12th-century St. Mary's in the east,
which, with the exception of their towers, Cardinal Archbishop
of Brandenburg had demolished in such a way that between
the respective pairs of towers a new hall church could
be built. The so called Hausmann towers at the eastern
end are joined by a bridge, where the fire watch stood,
and were habitable. The octagonal Blue Towers were named
after their slate tiling. The great organ at the western
end of the nave was inaugurated in 1716 in the presence
of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was here that Martin Luther
preached in 1545 and 1546 to the newly Protestant congregation:
The death mask kept in the sacristy as well as the impression
of his hands together with a roughly 5 meter high commemorative
plaque on the eastern outer wall witness thereto.
At No. 1-3 An der Marienkirche is the entrance to Germany's
oldest and largest protestant extant church library, the
Marienbibliothek, a mecca for scholars concerned with
the culture of the 15th to 18th centuries. Among its treasures
is the "Hallesche Heiltumsbuch" dating from
1520.
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