Löbnitz Evangelical Church

The village church, which is over 700 years old, has an impressive history and houses significant sacred relics from various eras. These include a large number of epitaphs, a winged altarpiece dating back approximately 400 years, and a picture Bible ceiling that is unique in Central Germany (Biblia pauperum, 1691). The Löbnitz church, a Romanesque three-nave basilica built of river stone, was first mentioned in 1183. The altar was built in 1629 by Georg Eckhard of Freiberg and restored between 1973 and 1980 by W. Pitzschler and P. Dietrich of Crimmitzschau.
The first renovation of the church began in 1688, when it was converted into a hall church. Extensive renovations took place in 1930 and 1972. Since 2012, the culturally and historically significant painted ceiling has been restored to its former glory. It is the largest Renaissance wooden coffered ceiling with painted scenes in Central Germany.
The interior of the church features a wealth of furnishings: a patron’s box with a column capital from 1586, an altar from 1629, a baptismal font from 1603, an 18th-century pulpit, and numerous epitaphs, mostly for members of the von Schönfeldt family, who resided in Löbnitz for 567 years. A Last Supper relief (1932) by the Löbnitz-born sculptor Otto Richter.

The church in Löbnitz houses the largest and most elaborate painted ceiling in Germany, created in 1691 by the Delitzsch painter Christian Schilling. It consists of 250 individual coffered panels. 82 panels are decorated with floral motifs and 168 with biblical scenes (36 from the Old Testament and 78 from the New Testament). Additionally, individual figures such as the 16 prophets of the Scriptures, the 12 apostles, and the 4 evangelists, as well as Moses, Jesus, Luther, and Melanchthon, are depicted in the panels. The series concludes with 18 images depicting angels.

The church in Löbnitz is a stop on the Luther Trail in Saxony