Quedlinburg
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The market square of Quedlinburg. |
Quedlinburg is a town located near the
Harz mountains, in the west of
Saxony-Anhalt,
Germany. Quedlinburg is the capital of the
district of Quedlinburg.
The city of Quedlinburg has existed since at least the early ninth century, when a settlement known as Gross Orden existed at the eastern bank of the river
Bode. As such the city is first mentioned in
922, as part of a donation by
Henry the Fowler. The records of this donation were collected at the abbey of
Corvey.
After Henry's death in 936, his widow St Mathilde founded a women's convent on what's called "Castle Hill" today, where daughters of the higher nobility were educated. The main task of this convent was to pray for the memory of King Henry and the rulers that came after him. The first abbess of the convent was Mathilde, granddaughter of Henry and St Mathilde.
The Quedlinburg castle complex, founded by
Henry the Fowler and build up by
Otto I the Great in 936, was an imperial
palatinate of the Saxon emperors. The palatinate with a men's convent was in the valley, where nowadays the
Catholic church of St Wiperti is situated, while the women's
convent worked on the castle hill.
In 961 and 963 a Canon's monastery was established in St Wiperti south of the castle hill. It was abandoned in the 16th century, and at one time the church, which boasts a magnificent
crypt from the 10th century, was even used as a barn and a pigsty before being restored in the 1950's.
In 973 short before the death of
Otto I the Great a
Reichstag (Imperial Convention) was held at the court of emperor
Otto I the Great where many nobles, including
Mieszko, duke of
Poland and
Boleslav, duke of
Bohemia, and even nobles from as far away as
Byzantium, gathered to pay homage to the emperor. It was here that Otto the Great introduced his new daughter-in-law Theophanu, a Byzantine princess whose marriage to Otto II brought hope for recognition and continued peace between the rulers of the Eastern and Western empires.
In 994
Otto III gives the right of market, tax and coining and established the first market place to the north of the castle hill. Between the upcoming town and the women's convent there was a struggle for power in the area that lasted the following centuries until the convent was finally abandoned in 1802.
During Nazi reign the memory of Henry I became a sort of "cult", as
Himmler saw himself as the reincarnation of the "most German of all German" rulers. The collegiate church and castle were to be turned into a shrine for Nazi Germany.
In the 1980s, restoration specialists from Poland were called in to carry out repairs on the old architecture, now one of the biggest selling points of the town.
In the innermost parts of the town you find a wide selection of
half-timbered buildings from at least five different centuries, while around the outer fringes of the old town there are wonderful examples of
Art Nouveau buildings, mainly dating from the early 20th century.
Since December 1994 the old town of Quedlinburg and the castle mount with the collegiate church are listed as one of
UNESCO's
World Heritage Sites.
In 2006 the
Harzer Schmalspurbahnen Selketal branch was extended into Quedlinburg from
Gernrode giving access to the historic steam
narrow gauge railway, Alexisbad and high Harz plateau.
*
www.quedlinburg.de The city's website (in German)*
www.quedlinburg.co.uk Private homepage (in English)*
UNESCO page on Quedlinburg*
The Quedlinberg Art Affair
