Cathedral church of ST Maurice and St Katherine, Magdeburg

The cathedral of SS. Maurice and Catherine is a landmark on the ‘Romanesque Road’. Construction began in 1209, after its Ottonian predecessor (937) had burnt down and only the foundations were left.

During the medieval, Magdeburg was a political centre of Europe and was considered to be the ”Third Rome“, next to Constantinople. Otto the Great, the son of the first German King Henry I and founder of the Holy Roman Empire, chose Magdeburg as his favourite residence and gave it to his first wife Editha as a wedding gift. In 1209, the construction of the first Gothic-design cathedral in Germany began.