Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut

The Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut is situated in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Naumburg Cathedral and the surrounding cultural landscape were proposed by Germany as a World Heritage Site. On July 1, 2018, only Naumburg Cathedral was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. This article discusses the cathedral and its cultural landscape based on the submissions in 1998 (cathedral) and 2005 (cultural landscape).

The cathedral and surrounding cultural landscape is representative for processes at the High Middle Ages that shaped the whole continent: Christianization, settlement and cultivation processes, the so-called Landesausbau, that took place between 1000 and 1300. This borderland region also bears witness of the intercultural exchange of different cultures in the High Middle Ages. The highest-ranking buildings and works of art, most of all Naumburg Cathedral with its globally unique artistic and iconographic founder figures, provides testimony to the claims to power and the self-confidence of the worldly and spiritual rulers as well as to the region's crucial role as a place of interchange between Western and Eastern realms.

Nomination as World Heritage Site

In 1998, Naumburg Cathedral was inscribed into the Tentative List for World Heritage nominations and extended seven years later by its surrounding cultural landscape.Tentative Lists are prepared by States Parties to the Convention on the Protection of Cultural and Natural World Heritage. They contain a number of nomination proposals to be submitted in the future. For further information on the selection of potential World Heritage sites, please see selection criteria. "The 'Naumburg Cathedral and the surrounding cultural landscape along the rivers Saale and Unstrut' are outstanding and representative examples of the High Middle Ages (1000–1300). Nowhere else in the world has such a high density of monuments and cultural landscape elements from the High Middle Ages been preserved in such a small space in such a level of authenticity in its original spatial setting.".Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Hamburger, Harvard University, Prof. Dr. Dany Sandron, Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Prof. Dr. Stefan Tebruck, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen a.o.(2017). In 2008, the Förderverein Welterbe an Saale und Unstrut e.V. was founded as the Sponsoring Association of the World Heritage Site by the Saale and Unstrut. The nomination was discussed on the 39th meeting of World Heritage Committee.UNESCO (2015): WHC-15/39.COM/INF.19. The World Heritage Committee decided to defer the nomination in order to allow for a revision and renewed submission taking into account the recommendations of the ICOMOS-evaluation and seeking the guidance and advice by ICOMOS in the process.UNESCO (2015): WHC-15/39.COM/19. On 1 February 2016, Germany submitted a renewed submission to the World Heritage Centre in Paris, UNESCO.UNESCO (2017): WHC/17/41.COM/INF.8B1. This nomination was discussed at the 41st meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Kraków, Poland, from 2 until 12 July 2017 where the Committee decided upon the Outstanding Universal Value of the Naumburg Cathedral. Germany submitted the revised nomination "Naumburg Cathedral" on 1 February 2018. However, only Naumburg Cathedral was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on July 1, 2018. The German officials were indifferent about the decision of excluding the surrounding landscape.

Cultural landscape The cultural landscape around the Naumburg Cathedral is a cultural landscape that illustrates the "evolution of human society and settlement over time".UNESCO (2016): WHC.16/01. This landscape was created intentionally by man.

The Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut displays the rise of the Central Middle Ages in Europe. This was a time of rise, a "take off" due to an increase in population, Christianization and major transformation in agriculture. The "Landesausbau", urban development, internal colonization and territorialisation, took place all across Europe. "Never again has Europe seen such cultural and institutional uniformity as at that time". The nominated area serves as an extraordinary model region due to the density and quality of elements displaying mediaeval land development and land exploitation. It was a melting pot of populations of different origins, Frankish, Thuringian, Saxon, Flemish, and Slavonic. Furthermore, as a sensitive border region, it was shaped by ecclesiastical and secular powers seeking the rights of possession, representation and defense. In the nominated landscape, 720 elements from the period of the Central Middle Ages are still in use, establish the identity of the region and give testimony of the shaping of border lands during a period of no more than 200 years in the High Middle Ages, which has in this instance been tangibly preserved to present day.

Description of the cultural landscape The landscape is characterized by authentic monuments, intact urban morphology and unchanged rural landscape from the High Middle Ages visible in Naumburg and Freyburg, around the villages of Ebersroda, Schleberoda, Gross-Wilsdorf and Flemmingen, as well as the vineyards of Dechantenberg, Schweigenberg, Köppelberg, and Saalhäuser. In total, four castles and four monastic complexes, two cities as well as villages, vineyards, fertile fields and pastures constitute this nomination.UNESCO (2017): WHC/17/41.COM/INF.8B1. They form a serial nomination with a total of 11 components parts: Naumburg Schönburg Castle Goseck Freyburg Schleberoda Ebersroda Großwilsdorf and the Rödel Plateau Kleinjena Pforta monastery Saaleck Flemmingen The nominated property is surrounded by a buffer zone ensuring the protection of relevant view axes and topographical characteristics as well as the integrity of the property.

Component: Naumburg Naumburg Cathedral Naumburg Cathedral is known for its architecture, sculptures and images: "The harmonic connection between architecture, sculpture and stained glass windows in the west choir of the cathedral counts among the most impressive creations of human creativity in the Middle Ages at large."Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Hamburger, Harvard University, Prof. Dr. Dany Sandron, Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Prof. Dr. Stefan Tebruck, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen a.o. (2017). The Romanesque core structure is flanked by two Gothic choirs in the east and in the west, built in the transitional style between Late Romanesque and Early Gothic.

The Naumburg Masters

The worldwide known workshop of sculptors and stonemasons, which was likely established in the early 13th century, known as the Naumburg Masters, was headed by a sculptor-architect, who has been described by scholars as "an artist of real genius". The quality of the work of the Naumburg Masters, marked by an extraordinary realism and individualism of sculptures and a detailed representation of the environment such as plants or ornaments, has justified Naumburg's reputation beyond its region. The Naumburg Masters were conveyors and pioneers of the innovations in architecture and sculpture of the Late Hohenstaufen period in the 13th century. Their building workshop has left traces of its work all the way from Northern France over the Middle Rhine area up to the eastern boundaries of the German Empire and further on the southwestern Europe. It reflects the cultural artistic exchange during the High Middle Ages.

Choir screens – Passion of Christ

One feature of the Naumburg Cathedral is its two almost completely preserved choir screen structures from the 13th century. In the east choir, the only late Romanesque hall choir screen has survived. In the west choir, there is a Gothic partition-type screen: "Even within the tiny corpus of medieval churches whose original configurations of architecture and sculpture remain intact, the arrangement at Naumburg is unique." The western mural choir screen shows artistic quality in terms of architecture, ornamentation and figural sculptures: "The mid-thirteenth-century west choir of Naumburg Cathedral has long been admired both for its unified architectural design"." The architecture has an organic character and provides information details such as historic local plants. The conceptually sophisticated arrangement of the passion of Christ is one of the most outstanding among the preserved sculptural ensembles from the 13th century, providing i.a. detailed information on contemporary clothing. The Naumburg Master achieved a degree of dramatic expressiveness and natural vibrancy that conveys the suffering of Christ and the deep grief of Mary and St. John. The statues of the mourning Mary and St. John catch the viewers attention and draw them close to Christ.

Founder statues – Uta

The Early Gothic west choir was built with an elevated gallery portraying the founders. The life-sized representation of a group of 12 people of the high nobility that were neither emperor neither king is unique in art history : "The twelve founder statues [...] are extraordinary in many aspects. A series of monumental representations of secular male and female founders of the cathedral of Naumburg, the statues are characterized by startling vividness and by theatrical interaction". The statues are considered "sculptural ensemble of the major arts" due to their expressiveness and to the individualized portraits. There cannot be found comparable examples from the same period.

One founder couple, Ekkehard II, Margrave of Meissen, with his wife Uta von Ballenstedt, stands in the north. Margravess Uta is presented like a queen with a fleur-de-lis crown. The sculpture of Uta has experienced an unparalleled cult, due considerably to photographs taken by the Naumburger photographer Walter Hege in the 1920s. Umberto Eco wrote in his "History of Beauty" that from all women of art history, the one he would like most have dinner with was in first place, ahead of all others, Uta von Naumburg. The founder figure of Uta also found her way in the UFA motion pictures and as the Queen of Disney's Snow White, causing a huge wave of enthusiasm for this icon of gothic art.

Glass painting

The window paintings of the west choir were created from an unknown glass painting workshop in close consultation with the building workshop of the Naumburg Master, together creating unity and harmony. This becomes evident by the designs of the images of the saints that correspond with the founders' sculptures in many aspects like positions, gestures and weapons. The portrayal of ten bishops of Naumburg at the bottom of the window rows creates the impression as if the statues of the founders were standing on the same level as the medals. The glass paintings count among the most significant glass paintings of their style from the 13th century.

Old Town of Naumburg

Naumburg was a bishop's seat and an important market place founded at the beginning of the 11th century on the place of the former Slav fortress of Wethau. The development of the town is closely connected with one of the most powerful and noble Ekkehardine dynasty of that time, Emperor Conrad II and Bishop Hildeward of Zeitz. With the consent of the pope John XIX and the emperor Konrad II, as well as citing the danger of Slav incursions, margrave Ekkerhard I relocated the Episcopal See of Zeitz to Naumburg. Along with the bishop's seat he transferred his own family seat from Kleinjena to their own estate at the new castle "Nuwemburch" in Naumburg around 1028. Furthermore, he assigned the protection of the See to the "new castle", an event hitherto unparalleled in the history of the empire. This bold move enabled the construction of the first early Romanesque cathedral in Naumburg.