St. Nikolai church (Jüterbog)

The nave is a Brick Gothic hall church construction with field stone dual towers that dominate the cityscape.

The elevated high altar contains elaborate carvings with floral motifs and several colored putti.

The top contains a triangle with the Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton inside symbolizing the Christian trinity.

[4] The retable in the chapel contains a central panel painting showing the lamentation of Christ from about 1515-1520 that is attributed to the workshop of the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Elder.

A small chapel contains a rare surviving indulgences coffer by Dominican friar Johann Tetzel.

Archbishop Albert of Brandenburg had appointed Tetzel to collect indulgences which were used to finance the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Martin Luther said in his table talks that Tetzel offered his letters of indulgence in Jüterbog because he was not allowed to cross the border to nearby Wittenberg.

When more and more of Luther's parishioners went to Jüterbog to buy the latest indulgence letters, he published his famous 95 Theses in 1517 which began the Reformation.

[6][7] A local folklore story told by Theodor Fontane in his travelogue Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg said that the coffer was robbed from Tetzel by the local knight Hans von Hake who had previously bought an indulgence letter for future sins.