Alte Nikolaischule

The Alte Nikolaischule on Nikolaikirchhof opened in 1512 as Leipzig's first municipal secondary school, outside the church's control. Its pupils included Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Christian Thomasius, Johann Gottfried Seume and Richard Wagner. The Renaissance building is now a cultural house run by the Kulturstiftung Leipzig. It also houses the University of Leipzig's Museum of Antiquities (since 1994), a Richard Wagner museum on the composer's youth (since 2013) and the Gasthaus Alte Nikolaischule restaurant. Its second-floor auditorium, the Richard-Wagner-Aula, keeps the late-classical form it had when Wagner was a pupil in 1828–30; it has a Blüthner grand piano and holds up to about 95 guests for concerts, dinners and celebrations. A conference room for up to 30 adjoins the foyer, and the second floor is reached by lift.