The Cathedral of St. Mauritius and St. Katharine
Magdeburg Cathedral is the city's most famous landmark: the first Gothic cathedral to be built in Germany and still one of the biggest churches in the country.
Its origins can be traced back to 937, when Emperor Otto the First founded a monastery in honour of St. Mauritius. He went on to extend the church building in 955 and elevated it to cathedral status in 968. In 1207, the Ottonian cathedral was severely damaged in a great fire. It took until 1362 for the rebuilt Gothic church to be consecrated, and the 101-metre-high west towers were not completed until 1520. The cathedral has been Protestant since 1567.
People visiting the cathedral nowadays are struck by the monumental grandeur of the building, which contains many unique and internationally renowned features from nearly every artistic era: the original tomb of Otto I and his first wife Edith, early-Gothic sandstone sculptures including the famous sculptures of the wise and foolish virgins, the magnificently crafted choir stalls for the canons dating back to the fourteenth century, and paintings and artworks from the Renaissance era right up to the twentieth century.
Magdeburg Cathedral
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Am Dom 1
39104 Magdeburg
Telephone: 0 391/5410436
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