Freiberg Cathedral of St. Mary

A cathedral that was never the seat of a bishop, yet one of the most richly furnished churches in Saxony: the Cathedral of St. Mary on Untermarkt in Freiberg owes its treasures to silver mining. It holds a 13th-century portal with a firm place in German art history, a pulpit that grows out of the floor like a flower, and the largest organ that Gottfried Silbermann built with his own hands. Eight Electors of the House of Wettin are buried in the choir.

History: rebuilt after the great fire

Around 1180, a Romanesque basilica was built in the young town of Freiberg, which was growing fast thanks to silver finds. In 1480 Pope Sixtus IV raised it to a collegiate church, which explains the name "Dom". The great town fire of 1484 almost completely destroyed the church; only the Golden Gate, the triumphal cross group and parts of the choir survived. A Late Gothic hall church was built on the same spot and consecrated in the early 16th century. It has been Lutheran since 1537. From 1589 Elector August had Giovanni Maria Nosseni convert the choir into a burial chapel for the Albertine line of the Wettins. The cathedral never received full-height towers: plans from 1905 for a pair of towers were dropped when the First World War broke out.

What to see

• Golden Gate: This Late Romanesque sandstone portal from around 1225 is regarded as the first complete statue portal in Germany. The tympanum shows the Virgin enthroned with the Three Magi, with Old Testament figures on either side. It was originally painted and has been protected by a porch since 1902/03.
• Tulip Pulpit: Carved from porphyry tuff around 1505 to 1510, the pulpit stands free in the nave, held only by iron anchors. At the foot of the stairs a young miner carries the load; some see him as a self-portrait of the sculptor.
• Miners' Pulpit: Right next to it stands the pulpit of 1638, supported by figures of a miner and a mine foreman in working dress.
• Great Silbermann organ: Built between 1710 and 1714, with 44 stops and 2,674 pipes. It was Silbermann's first large organ and remained the largest he built himself. A second, smaller Silbermann organ stands opposite.
• Electoral burial chapel: Between 1541 and 1696, 38 members of the Saxon ruling house were buried here. On the top cornice sit 34 music-making angels holding Renaissance instruments.

Good to know

The angels' instruments are not mere props: studies showed that they are genuine Renaissance instruments or very accurate copies. Since hardly any instruments from that period survive, they were examined and reconstructed in Leipzig. Copies of the Golden Gate stand at Harvard University, in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. In the cloister there is a Romanesque font from the church in Hirschfeld in which, according to tradition, Katharina von Bora, later Martin Luther's wife, was baptised.

Opening hours and tickets (as of October 2026)

• May to October: Monday to Saturday 10:00–17:00, Sundays and church holidays 11:30–17:00.
• November to April: Monday to Saturday 11:00–16:00, Sundays 11:30–16:00.
• Admission to the cathedral, cloister and green cemetery: €5, reduced €4, family ticket €11, including an audio guide via app. Children under 6 free.
• Public cathedral tour (about one hour, in German): €7, with organ music €8. From May to October daily at 14:00, plus Sundays at 11:30 with organ music.

Tickets are sold in the cathedral shop. Visits are not possible during services and weddings.

Getting there and parking

The cathedral is at Untermarkt 1 in Freiberg's old town. There is parking right on Untermarkt, on Geschwister-Scholl-Straße and at Schlüsselteich. From Obermarkt and the town hall it is a short walk through the old town.

Tripto tip

If you can, join a tour with organ music, on Wednesdays or Sundays in season: that way you do not just see the Silbermann organ, you hear it played. In the choir, look up at the Mannerist ceiling of paintings and stucco. Before going in, take your time at the Golden Gate in the porch on the south side. One to two hours are enough for the cathedral and cloister. The town and mining museum is directly opposite on Untermarkt.