On 31 October 1517, according to tradition, a professor of theology named Martin Luther nailed a list of ninety five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, challenging the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church. Whether he actually used a hammer is debated by historians, but the theses spread rapidly across Germany and beyond, thanks to the printing press, and they sparked the Reformation, which transformed the religious, political and cultural life of Europe. The original wooden door was destroyed by fire in 1760, and in 1858 it was replaced by bronze doors bearing the text of the theses in Latin. Luther is buried inside the church, as is his friend and colleague Philipp Melanchthon.
The Castle Church and the other Luther memorials in Wittenberg and Eisleben were listed by UNESCO in 1996. They include Luther's house, a former monastery where he lived with his wife Katharina von Bora and their children, now a museum about the Reformation; Melanchthon's house; and the town church of St Mary, where Luther preached and where the first services in German were held. The whole town, officially named Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a pleasant place to explore, with a long main street lined with old houses, shops and cafes.
The riding around Wittenberg is through the flat, open landscape of the Elbe valley, with fields, forests and small villages. The roads are straight and well surfaced, with little traffic outside the towns, and the riverside roads offer pleasant views over the water meadows. To the west, the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, an eighteenth century landscape of parks, palaces and lakes, is a lovely place to visit, and Dessau is also home to the Bauhaus, the famous school of art and design. To the south, the Dübener Heide is a large area of forest and heath with quiet roads.
Wittenberg, a town of about thirty thousand people, has fuel, shops and restaurants, and the local speciality is the Lutherbrot, a sweet gingerbread-like pastry. The town gets very busy around Reformation Day on 31 October, and during the festival of Luther's wedding in June, when the streets are filled with people in medieval costume. The weather is continental, with warm summers and cold winters.