| History of the Melanchthon House |
Philipp Melanchthon lived on the property at today’s Collegienstraße 60 from his arrival in Wittenberg, in 1518, until his death. He initially lived in a modest half-timbered house, at first as a bachelor and then, beginning in 1520, together with his wife. John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, later recognised that he needed to provide Melanchthon – one of the most important professors at the elector's university – with an adequate home in order to keep him in the city and at the university. The elector commissioned the new house in 1535; he provided 500 guilders and the university provided a further 250 guilders for its construction. 
Work was begun in 1536 and was completed in three years’ time. The name of the supervising architect remains unknown. In any case, he had mastered the formal vocabulary of the modern architecture of his time, which was based on Italian models. Portals and decorative gables incorporating round arches – like those of the Melanchthon House – are to be found in somewhat earlier or contemporary structures in Dresden, Halle, and Torgau, for example.
This new home offered abundant space for the Melanchthon family. In 1556, the house was connected to the old ‘Jungfernröhrwasser’-system, which provided it with drinking water. The house continued to be used as a residence for professors after Melanchthon’s death. Craftsmen later moved into the house. Over the centuries, the building’s inhabitants made few structural changes. The gateway was purchased in about 1620 and rooms were built above it on the side facing the street. Around 1700, the stairway was relocated to its current position. As a whole, however, the Melanchthon House can be accurately described as the most ‘authentic’ of all the Reformation memorials in Wittenberg. The Prussian government bought the Melanchthon House in 1845 and had Melanchthon’s study – which was also the room where he died – reconstructed in 1898-99. A museum of local history was opened in the Melanchthon House in 1954; in 1967, the building became a Melanchthon memorial. The house was last renovated in 1997, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Protestant reformer and Humanist. |