Nordhusen ruins, Hundisburg

The ruins of Nordhusen church tower in their picturesque setting near Hundisburg are one of the few traces to remain of a village which was in decline even in mediaeval times.

The church probably predates by only a few years the first documentary evidence of the village of Nordhusen in 1218.
In 1262, Bishop Frederick of Halberstadt relinquished the patronage of Nordhusen church to the chapter of Halberstadt cathedral. Nordhusen soon lost out to Hundisburg in terms of importance, and was abandoned as a settlement by no later than 1458. The church fell into disrepair, with only the perimeter walls of the church tower surviving. When a romantic landscape park was designed between Hundisburg and the nearby monastery at Althaldensleben in the 19th century, the artistic merits of the church tower came to the fore. The grand, 17 m high west tower was built in the second half of the 12th century of the typical greywacke masonry regularly worked in the region.