Dom St. Marien Fürstenwalde/Spree, cathedral

The St Mary’s Cathedral in Fürstenwalde with its 68 metres high tower is visible from afar. Fürstenwalde is one of the three cathedral towns in the Mark region, besides Brandenburg a.d. Havel and Havelberg. The current three-aisle cathedral was built in the mid-15th century. The structure of the tower is particularly remarkable, not only because of its great height. The square-shaped main building with its polygonal towers was completed around 1470. The cathedral was damaged and repaired multiple times over the course of its history, but then was almost entirely destroyed in April 1945. However, the church has been completely refurbished. The most valuable item of its interior is the twelve metres high tabernacle by the sculptor Franz Maidburg from Freiberg. It was created in 1517. The local congregation uses the cathedral as a place of worship. It is also a venue for a wide range of events and concerts.

Organ
The village community bought the three-manual Schuke organ from the St Thomas’ Church in Leipzig in 1999. Virtually all registers of the old organ from Leipzig could be heard during the celebratory mass on Reformation Day in the year 2003. Further extensions were funded with donations.

The organ now has 4316 pipes and it weighs a total of 25 tonnes. The smallest pipe is 6.5 millimetres long and weighs 4.2 grammes. The biggest pipe is 6.5 metres long and weighs 75 kilogrammes.