This is the parish church of Mühlhausen’s historic old town. In 1227 King Henry (VII) gave it as a gift to the Teutonic Order. Built between 1270 and 1300 at the site of an older basilica, the hall church is one of the earliest Gothic churches in central Germany. The short construction time and the high-quality execution can be attributed to Bishop Kristan of Samland who provided his knowledge of French Cathedral architecture, taking the Elisabeth Church in Marburg as an example, and financed the construction with his own fortune.

The window rosette in the north transept, reminiscent of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, was outfitted with stained glass windows in 2008. The gable frame facing the town, featuring the rose as well as two figures––the Virgin Mary and the Bishop Blaise the Divine––form the representative entry to the church. The church’s valuable furnishings include stained glass windows in the main choir dating back to the late thirteenth century and a late Gothic carved altar with the crowning of the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of the Teutonic Order. On the south wall of the choir there are the tombstones of Bishop Kristan, who was buried here in 1295. Another tombstone belongs to Hieronymus Tilesius, the first superintendent of the evangelical church, who died in 1566. After the Reformation the attribute of the church’s patron saint was changed from “Sanctus” (Saint) to “Divius” (Divine) in order to mark the break with the Catholic tradition of the veneration of the saints.

A wrought-iron ornamental grill, dating back to 1640, separates the choir from the transept. The northern side choir is dominated by a triumphant cross while the southern side choir houses the sacristy, and above it the former library. Both the pulpit, built or rebuilt in 1564/65, and the baptismal font are of high quality. The rich furnishing from the pre-Reformation period, known from reports about the early iconoclasms between 1523 and 1525, is mostly lost.

The massive western towers, crowned with helm roofs made from stone, were finished around 1270. They are remnants of the old Romanesque basilica preceding today’s church. On the tower level there are three bells, still beautifully sounding, from the years 1281, 1345 and 1448.

Numerous church song poets and organists employed at Blaise the Divine made the church an important centre for fostering evangelical church music, a status it still maintains in the present day. Standing out in its long tradition of church music was Johann Sebastian Bach’s stint as organist from 1707 to 1708. Following his organ disposition today’s Schurke organ was constructed in 1959.