Hotel Villa Heine

Condoms

by Mariajoy

Always useful to bring some of these... but just in case you should forget ...LOOK! You can buy them on the street ! The Good Burghers of the Stadt have thoughtfully placed condom machines right where the public need them most AND there seemed to be several brands available. Bright yellow too so you can't miss it on a dark night! :)) How practical! How German!... I love this country!

Dom

by Kathrin_E

The origins of the Dom, Magdeburg’s medieval cathedral, date around the year 1000 and are connected with Emperor Otto I. from the Saxon dynasty. In those times the land east of the Elbe was still in Slavic and thus pagan hands. To promote the mission and, of course, the conquering of the land Otto founded the Archbishopric of Magdeburg.

The cathedral has been extended and enlarged later on and is a huge gothic building. The two steeples in the west form a huge façade which is visible from afar, no matter from which direction you approach the city.

To beautify his church, Otto had original ancient Roman pieces transported here from the Mediterranean across the Alps and the whole of Germany. The baptismal font is a water basin made from Egyptian porphyry. The inner facades of the choir are decorated with marble columns from Ravenna. Why this effort? The Emperors of the medieval Holy Roman Empire saw themselves as the legit successors of the ancient Roman Caesars and Imperators. The use of ancient Roman architectural pieces transferred a bit of Rome to Magdeburg and made the political role of the Emperor visible.

The Dom contains the graves of Otto and his first wife Editha. Note the little house with their statues inside. These are not portraits and according to modern research depict Christ and either Mary or the Ecclesia rather than the imperial couple, nevertheless…

Magdeburg introduced the reformation in the 16th century and the Dom is a protestant church. It is, however, the metropolitan church of the Evangelical Church of the Saxon Church province (a former Prussian province that covers parts of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, not to be confused with today’s Saxony) and as such the church of a bishop. The catholic cathedral of Magdeburg, however, is a different church on the opposite side of Breiter Weg. Magdeburg is the seat of two bishops and has two cathedrals.

The adjacent cloister can be entered through the church and should not be missed. The buildings around the cloister are occupied by the church administration and contain offices.

Fürstenwall Promenade

by Kathrin_E

The former ramparts along the river bank have been turned into a promenade walk already in the 1720s. A rather short one, but still worth seeing. Parts of the city fortification are still visible. Stairs lead down into the Zwinger between the two town walls.

From the top you get a nice view of the back side of Dom and the Domplatz buildings, and over the Elbe.

The 15th century tower (rebuilt) has the cute Low German nickname Kiek in de Köken (“Peep into the Kirchen”) because the guards on the tower had a good view through the windows of the kitchen in the archbishop’s palace.

Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen

by Mariajoy

Monastery of Our Lady

Magdeburg's most impressive building, is the cathedral dominating the historical city centre. The cathedral is the first gothic church building in Germany and with a height of 104 m the highest church building of East Germany.
Built between 1064 and the middle of the 12th century, the Cathedral now houses an art museum and theatre.

Winter Walk round what once was Magdeburg’s centre

by Kathrin_E

From the train station I followed Ernst-Reuter-Allee towards Alter Markt and then strolled through some side streets between Breiter Weg and Elbe.

A few merchants were keeping their market stalls open despite the cold and the snow but they attracted few customers.

Otto von Guericke, the mayor and scientist, is honoured with a monument in the small square behind the old town hall. A few pre-war buildings are preserved here, the rest is DDR Plattenbau.

The church and the other buildings are veiled by the snow.

Some DDR buildings

The theatre wears a snow cap, too.

These beauties are in fact the bach facades of the buildings along Breiter Weg mall. The blocks from DDR times have been restored and redecorated recently.