Leipzig audio guide: the stories of its sights

Imagine a government deciding to blow up a monument, and then changing its mind because of a few Russian soldiers from 1813.

That is what happened to the Monument to the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig, the Völkerschlachtdenkmal. It was built between 1898 and 1913 by Bruno Schmitz in a monumental style. It stands about 91 metres tall, making it one of the highest monuments in Europe. It remembers the decisive day of 18 October 1813, during the Wars of Liberation, when the great battle was fought near Leipzig.

After the Second World War, the government of East Germany first considered destroying it. Then someone remembered that Russians had fought on the German side in that battle. That changed everything. The place became a monument to German-Soviet friendship, a brotherhood in arms. Today the monument is well worth experiencing. From the foot of the base to the viewing platform at the top, there are 500 steps.

And in clear air, it can be seen from the Fichtelberg, 105 kilometres away.

A builder on a rubble site once saved Johann Sebastian Bach's bones from ending up on a rubbish tip.

That is how the story goes for St Thomas Church in Leipzig, the Thomaskirche. It is one of the city's two main churches, and it is known around the world as the place where Bach worked, alongside the Thomanerchor, its famous boys' choir. A church on this site was rebuilt between 1212 and 1222 as the collegiate church of the Saint Thomas monastery. Today it is a hall church with three aisles, 76 metres long.

Bach's story here begins after the Johanniskirche, another Leipzig church, burned. The stone sarcophagus holding what were believed to be his bones survived the fire unharmed. Then an attentive builder spotted the two stone coffins and kept them from being cleared away to the rubble dump. He brought the bones to the Thomaskirche, where they arrived on 28 July 1949.

The grave needed a bronze plate, and bronze was very hard to come by then. A Soviet cultural officer paid for it from his own allocation. Some music scholars today doubt that the bones really are Bach's. The Thomanerchor was founded in 1212 and is one of Germany's oldest boys' choirs. It sings on Fridays at 18:00, on Saturdays at 15:00, and on Sundays at the 9:30 service.

Saint Nicholas Church in Leipzig began with just a few people praying on Mondays.

Within a few years, those prayers had grown into something that put tens of thousands of people on the streets. The Nikolaikirche, as it is called in German, is the oldest and largest church in Leipzig's city centre. Building began in 1165, after Leipzig was granted town and market rights. It was built in the Romanesque style, and later it was rebuilt as a late Gothic hall church.

The Monday prayers took place here as early as the start of the 1980s. At first, only a handful of people came. But from these small gatherings the Monday demonstrations developed. By the end of the 1980s, tens of thousands of people took to the streets every week, and sometimes more than 100,000. The church became the central starting point of the peaceful revolution in East Germany.

A peace column in the churchyard still recalls the Monday demonstrations. Today, the church offers half-hour organ tours on Friday afternoons. And if you book in advance, you can join a tour of the tower.

Imagine a student in Leipzig, sitting in a cellar, glancing up at a painting of a man riding a wine barrel.

That is Faust, and that glance would one day become a famous scene. This is Auerbachs Keller, the best-known and second-oldest inn in Leipzig. It lies beneath the Mädler-Passage, just a few steps from the market. Wine was already being served here in 1438, and since the 16th century it has been a respected wine tavern. Goethe studied in Leipzig from 1765 to 1768, and he came to the cellar regularly.

He already knew the Faust legend from puppet plays, which he had met early in life. Here, two wooden paintings hung on the wall. One showed Faust at a student carousal. The other showed Faust riding on a wine barrel. These pictures gave Goethe direct inspiration for the scene he wrote later. Today the cellar still tells that story. A rock opera, Faust, is staged here, and at its premiere the barrel ride was re-enacted at the historic spot for the first time.

The inn has four historic wine rooms, and a hidden witches' kitchen as well.