Key facts

• The Ottonian dynasty and Quedlinburg: the Ottonian or Saxon dynasty was the first German royal and imperial dynasty, ruling the East Frankish kingdom (which became the Holy Roman Empire with the coronation of Otto I in 962) from 919 to 1024 AD — Henry I (the Fowler, 876–936) was elected King of East Francia (Germany) in 919 at Fritzlar; he chose Quedlinburg as one of his principal residences; when he died in 936 he was buried in the crypt of a church on the Schlossberg; his wife Mathilde (895–968), a granddaughter of the Saxon Duke Widukind, established the Quedlinburg Abbey (Stift Quedlinburg) as a convent for women of noble rank, with herself as the first abbess; Mathilde was buried alongside her husband in the crypt; their grandson Otto I appointed his daughter Mathilda (955–999) as abbess; the Stift Quedlinburg became one of the most important imperial foundations in Germany — a college of noblewomen (not a monastery in the strict sense, since the women were not bound by the full monastic rule) with direct imperial protection and the right to coin money; it survived until the Reformation (secularised 1539) and the Abbesses of Quedlinburg were among the most powerful women in the medieval German Empire
• The Collegiate Church of St Servatius (997–1129 AD): the most important single building of Ottonian religious architecture surviving in Germany — the current church was built in two phases: the crypt and the lower walls of the choir were built 997–1021 under Abbess Mathilda (granddaughter of Otto I), while the nave and upper choir were built 1070–1129; the crypt is the essential space: it is a three-aisled Romanesque crypt with Ottonian-period painted capitals and the original marble sarcophagi of King Henry I and Queen Mathilde in the centre; the quality of the Ottonian stonework in the crypt (the carved capitals with their early Romanesque foliage, the moulded arches, the colour-painted walls) is exceptional and represents one of the most important surviving examples of Ottonian decorative arts in situ; the nave of the church (1070–1129) is German Romanesque of the highest quality: the alternating piers and columns of the nave arcade, the gallery above, and the west towers are among the finest Romanesque ecclesiastical interiors in Saxony-Anhalt
• The Quedlinburg Gospels and the Quedlinburg Itala: the Stift Quedlinburg was a major centre of early medieval manuscript production and metalwork — the Quedlinburg Gospels (c. 1000–1030 AD, in the Marktkirche treasury and the Quedlinburg Cathedral treasury) are important examples of Ottonian book illumination closely related to the Reichenau school; the Quedlinburg Itala (4th century AD, the earliest surviving illustrated biblical manuscript of the Latin Bible, discovered in the binding of a 16th-century book in Quedlinburg in 1865) was one of the most important early Christian manuscript discoveries of the 19th century; the treasury of the Stift Quedlinburg (now in the Cathedral Treasury Museum) contains an exceptional collection of Ottonian metalwork, reliquaries, and ivory objects
• The Fachwerk old town (14th–20th century): the most extensive and best-preserved half-timbered townscape in Germany — the old town of Quedlinburg has approximately 1,300 half-timbered (Fachwerk) buildings spanning seven centuries; the oldest surviving house (the Ständerbau on the Wordgasse, c. 1310 AD) is the oldest secular timber-frame building in Germany; the Fachwerk styles of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries (with their characteristic carved oak beams, corner posts, and ornamental panels) demonstrate the complete evolution of German timber-frame domestic architecture; the Wordgasse and the Schuhof (the square of the old shoemakers’ quarter) are the most atmospheric streets; the market square (Marktplatz) with the Renaissance town hall (1616–1668) is the principal civic space
• Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage Site, Collegiate Church, Castle and Old Town of Quedlinburg, inscribed 1994
• GPS: 51.7869° N, 11.1394° E