The late-Gothic brick church was built in the Reformation period. The Elector Frederick the Wise had it built from 1515 on the site of the crumbling building that was previously there. The unusually wide nave was formerly divided by pillars. However, the pillars and vaults were destroyed by fires during the Thirty Years’ War. The neo-Gothic interior was created between 1850 and 1911. The ornamental flat ceiling was created by the Berlin painter August Oetken (1868–1951). The old church tower was destroyed by lightning in 1894. The neo-Gothic tower that is still in place today was built in 1898. The Bad Liebenwerda parish church has been the seat of a superintendency, an administrative district of the Protestant Church, since the 16th century. The superintendent Georg Lysthenius (1532–1596) was appointed court chaplain of the Elector August of Saxony (1526–1586) in 1573.
A bronze relief on the north side of St. Nicholas’ Church with the bust of Martin Luther is a reminder of Luther’s visits to Bad Liebenwerda. The reformer had a meeting with the papal envoy Karl von Miltitz on October 8, 1519 in Schloss Liebenwerda castle. Miltitz, who later drowned in the Main River on his return trip to Rome, had hoped to persuade Luther to repent, but the Augustinian monk insisted on his convictions. Martin Luther inaugurated pastor Martin Gilbert as the first superintendent of the Liebenwerda church district in St Nicholas’ Church in 1544. The Luther Memorial was donated by the Liebenwerda branch of the Confederation of Protestant Churches on the 400th anniversary of the Reformation.
Guided tours are available by prior arrangement.
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