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Holy and Healing Waters in Erfurt

The bilingual exhibition “Holy and Healing Waters” („Heiliges und Heilendes Wasser in Erfurt”), presented at the Brunnenkirche in Erfurt from 1-29 June 2026, is produced by the research group “Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations” (FOR 2779) at the Max Weber Centre, Erfurt University.
The curator, Sara Keller, conducts research on water and water places in India.

Water is central for the foundation of the Brunnenkirche, as well as for many other places in Erfurt. The exhibition presents seven places in Erfurt that are connected with waters believed to possess religious, healing, spiritual, or magical virtues.

Holy and healing waters are often mentioned in foundational stories, regardless of time or place. In some case, they even remained in the memories as the starting point of significant religious and urban centers. The Greek city of Delphi, for instance, cannot be understood without the Pythia oracle of the Apollo temple, associated with the Castalian Spring (7th century BC). Aachen, the medieval imperial city of Charles the Great emerged upon hot, allegedly curing, springs that were already developed as roman thermae around the 1st century CE. Geographically closer to us, the city of Lourdes developed where the peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous reported Marian apparitions and the sudden emergence of a holy and curing spring in 1858.

Besides the 7 holy and healing water places in erfurt, the exhibition offers a glimpse into a civilisation for which water bore, and still bears, a sacred dimension. In the Indian subcontinent, rare and precious water, to which spiritual properties are attributed. Water is essential for purification rituals and other religious practices, and it plays a crucial role in the social life. People meet, pray, exchange and rejoice around water. The exhibition offers a glimpse into the 2021 “Life around Water” exhibition.

Venue

Brunnenkirche, Fischersand 24 (check the map)

Inauguration

01.06.2026 at 5.30 pm (Opening by Zoë Opačić), in the framework of the KFG closing conference
You can join the exhibition inauguration by registering to the conference opening: please write to urbrel-conf@uni-erfurt.de (Dr. Anke Blümm).

Opening hours

Tuesday: 4.30- 6.30 pm
Wednesday: 10 am-12.30 pm
Saturday: 4.30-6.30 pm

Also after the church services: Sunday: 1-1.30 pm
Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday: 7-7.30 pm
Wednesday: 6.15-6.45 pm

Seven water places in Erfurt

Locate the 7 places on the map

These are the 7 water places presented in the exhibition:

Brunnenkirche: Bonifacius and Holy well

Petersberg: Water supply

Mikvah: Jewish ritual

St Severi: Christian Baptism

Augustinerkloster: Alchemy

Geraaue Kneipp: Cold water therapy

Dreienbrunnen: Popular Wisdom

On the 2021 “India. Life around Water Exhibition”

The exhibition was produced in the framework of the workshop “Accessing Water in the South Asian City” and displayed in July and August 2021 in the Augustinerkloster. The proceedings were published in 2025 with Primus.

The exhibition was further presented in Bhopal in January 2024 and at the BULAC in Paris in September and October 2025.

The video and the podcasts of the exhibition can be watched and listened on the website of the university of Erfurt.

Further readings

Further readings for each exhibition topic are given in the relevant post (select one of the 7 water places in Erfurt above).

On Indian waters and Sara Keller’s project: Some of the publications are listed here. Her monograph on “Water urbanities. Materiality and Meanings of Water Spaces in urban South Asia (10th-16th century)” is forthcoming with De Gruyter Brill.

Sara Keller
Sara Keller

OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
MIWA (May 21, 2026). Holy and Healing Waters in Erfurt. MIWA. Metrology of Indian Waters. Retrieved June 8, 2026 from https://miwa.hypotheses.org/8027


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