Николаикирхе, Лайпциг

Leipzig's principal parish church since the twelfth century, the Nikolaikirche was one of the two churches for which Bach, as Thomaskantor, was responsible, and it was here at Vespers on Good Friday 1724 that the St John Passion was first heard. Its interior is a surprise: in the 1780s Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe recast the Gothic space in a pale neoclassical manner, capping the columns with plaster palm fronds that spread open into the vault, so that the congregation sits beneath what looks like a stone grove. It remains a working church, and its acoustic keeps it in constant use for cantatas, oratorio and organ recitals.