Luther's friends had a party to say goodbye to him forever when he entered the cloister as a young man. Now the beautifully restored monastery offers hospitality to Luther pilgrims, who want to walk in his footsteps (top left and above), and to believers and inquirers in Erfurt. Things are still different in the city beyond the walls; next to the monastery, an elegant old home stands abandoned and boarded up on a weedy lot (below right). In GDR times, Soviet-style apartment blocks sprung up around the old town, just as they did in Russian cities (below left). Before entering the monastery, the university student Martin Luther lived in the dormitory reserved for the well-to-do, a residence befitting the son of a mine owner (left). Today, the building is still a residence, although like so many building in the former GDR, renovation is just beginning.
