great importance for local history: It retained the town church in the Thirty Years' War of being burned down. After the defeat of Sweden in the battle of Nördlingen (1634) general Johann Ludwig Hektor of Isolani, "the commander of all Croats", plundered the countries of the Thuringian princes. At 16 October (Gallustag) in 1634 Themar was burned down (on the same day as Suhl) after the plundering by the Croats. The town church would have been burned as well, but a pious Italian officer gave the order to extinguish the fire when it came near to the Marienaltar. Further carvings and art treasures are: The shrine of the apostles (about 1500), that is called Nasenaltar (nose altar) because of the expressive faces of the apostles. At the back of the side panels, there is a painting of the Apostelabschied (Great Commission). At the north wall, there is the altar of pilgrimage one can see the Hühnchenlegende (miracle of the chicken) of Santo Domingo de la Calzada (on the way of St James) at the back of a side panel. At the south wall there are a Pietà altar and a Gothic Mondsichelmadonna, and in the choir area an epitaph in the Renaissance style. Furthermore a fresco painting representing St. Catherine, that was detected in 1934, then the richly decorated Schalldeckel (abat-voix, or sounding-board) of the pulpit that dates from 1644 and an Epistelstuhl (reading-desk) likewise from the center of the 17th century and some paintings. About 1900 stained glass was donated for the windows in the choir area. The pictures show Biblical scenes: the prodigal or lost son, the Kindersegnung (benediction of children, St. Luke 18, 15-17), the Good Samaritan. The last renovation of the St Bartholomew's Church was in 1972. The organ Originally the organ of the town church was set up in 1851 at the east wall of the church nave by the organ-builders Johann Michel and Wilhelm Holland (from Schmiedefeld am Rennsteig). Three organ stops of the pedal division were taken over from the Weise-organ built in 1629. In 1866 the organ was moved to the extended second matroneum in the west and renewed and reorganized for the last time in the years 1999/2000 by the company Rösel and Hercher. From 1668 to 1684 Georg Christoph Bach, the oldest uncle of Johann Sebastian Bach, worked as cantor at the town church and as a teacher at the