Beschreibung
The second important town church and venue for church music performances, St Agnus, is smaller and inconspicuous in appearance. Donated in 1694 by Gisela Agnes, the mother of Bach´s prince Leopold, and completed in 1699, it blends into the row of houses on Köthen´s Stiftstraße - to the right is the building of the Protestant primary school, to the left is today´s vicarage and presumed home of Bach.Extensive renovations in the late classicist style were carried out as early as 1849, which were supplemented by neo-Gothic furnishings during the restoration in 1887/1888. During further remodelling in the 1960s, the late neoclassical plaster façade was destroyed. The restoration of the church began in 1996 and has since been completed. Johann Sebastian Bach, court conductor at Köthen, also worked in St Agnus Church during his tenure from 1717 to 1723, and the chalice from which Bach received communion can still be seen today.The church also houses a Last Supper painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1565) and a larger-than-life portrait of the benefactress Princess Gisela Agnes in widow´s dress (Antoine Pesne, 1713). Also worth seeing are the organ by Rühlmann from Zörbig (1881) and the late Gothic carved altar. The stained glass window from 1887 shows a depiction of the Ascension and was restored and reinstalled in the 1990s after being bricked up for around 30 years and in a correspondingly poor condition.
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