St. Anne's Church, Annaberg-Buchholz

When rich silver veins were found in the Ore Mountains in the late 15th century, Duke George the Bearded founded a new mining town and had a church built that was meant to tower over everything. At 65 metres long and 40 metres wide, St. Anne's Church in Annaberg-Buchholz is the largest purely Late Gothic hall church in Saxony. Inside, a vault of intertwining ribs spans the whole space, and on the back of the Miners' Altar you can see how miners extracted silver 500 years ago.

History: a church built on silver

In 1496/97 Duke George laid out the new town on the Schreckenberg, which has been called St. Annaberg since 1501. St. Anne was his favourite saint and also the patron saint of miners. The site, some 100 metres above the market square, was chosen so that the church would dominate the town from every direction. The foundation stone was laid in 1499, with money from indulgences, donations and mining. From 1515 Jacob Haylmann, a pupil of the Prague master builder Benedikt Ried, shaped the interior with its galleries and vault. The church was completed in 1525 and has been Lutheran since 1539. During restoration from the 1970s, five layers of later overpainting were removed, so the interior once again shows its colours of 1525.

What to see

• Looping rib vault: Haylmann's ribs intertwine into six-petalled flowers, and the keystones carry rosettes cut from tin. The roof rests independently on the pillars and outer walls, so the vault has no structural role.
• Miners' Altar: Consecrated in 1521 and donated by the miners' guild. The four panels on the back, attributed to the painter Hans Hesse, show ore mining, ore washing, a smelting works and the mint. Top left you can spot the town's founding legend: in a dream, an angel tells Daniel Knappe of a treasure on the Schreckenberg.
• Gallery reliefs: 100 relief panels from Franz Maidburg's workshop run around the interior. They begin with the ages of women and men in ten-year steps; at age 100 the Grim Reaper awaits.
• Pulpit: A miner at work on the pulpit stairs is an early example of the lifelike forms of the Renaissance.
• Beautiful Door: The portal of 1512 with a Crucifixion scene came from the dissolved Franciscan friary and was moved to the church in 1577.

Good to know

The 78.6-metre tower has been inhabited for 500 years and is considered the only church tower in Germany where a tower keeper's family still lives. Since 1999 the Melzer family of tower keepers has lived 42 metres up, above the bell chamber, looking after visitors and ringing the bells. On the eve of major church festivals you can watch, during tower opening hours, as the bells are still rung by hand with ropes.

Opening hours and tickets (as of October 2026)

• Church April to December: daily 11:00–17:00, Sundays and public holidays 12:00–17:00. January to March: 11:00–16:00, Sundays and holidays 12:00–16:00.
• Visit: €4, pupils €2, family €8. Guided tour (about 45 minutes, in German, including admission): €6, pupils €2, family €12. From April to December, Monday to Saturday at 11:00 and 14:00, Sundays at 14:00.
• Tower: May to October, Monday to Saturday 10:00–17:00, Sundays and church holidays 13:30–17:00, plus Easter and Advent weekends. Tower climb €3, children €1.

Visits are not possible during baptisms, weddings or funerals. Step-free access to the church is through the tower entrance.

Getting there

The church stands above the market square, and the Große Kirchgasse leads straight up to the tower. There are two coach parking spaces at the church; drivers are best off parking in the town centre and walking the short distance up.

Tripto tip

Allow about an hour for the church and another half hour for the tower. On the tour, ask about the panels of the Miners' Altar, as the famous mining scenes are on its back. Take your time with the gallery reliefs and look for the heraldic animals of the ages of life, such as the peacock or the bat. Advent is a particularly good time to visit, as the tower is open then too.