Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt)
boasts no less than 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Martin Luther’s Birthplace at Eisleben,
the Old Town of Quedlinberg, the Castle
at Wittenberg, and Dessau’s Bauhausstätten.
Among the towering scenery of the Harz Mountains,
a region ideal for walking and winter sports holidays and dotted
with villages with attractive carved timber-fronted houses, lies
the town of Wernigerode whose castle and 16th-century
Town Hall endow it with a fairytale air. There
is a museum of church relics is located here. On a walk the visitor
can see half-timbered houses of 6 centuries, among them the Crooked
House. The Harz is also one of the most
beautiful hiking areas in Germany, since December 1989, hikers have
been able to enjoy the Brocken (highest point of
the Harz) again. Half-timbered houses characterise Stolberg, ‘Pearl
of the South Harz region’, where the Town Hall, dating
back to 1492, contains no inner staircase. Just to the south lies
the city of Halle, birthplace of Handel,
and where Martin Luther often preached in the Marienkirche
in the Market Square.
South of Halle lies the historic town of Naumburg
with its beautiful late Romanesque/early Gothic Cathedral of St
Peter and St Paul. A recommended excursion from here takes in the
old Hanseatic towns of Salzwedel, Stendal and Tangermünde
to see the medieval fortifications.
Magdeburg
Located on the banks of the Elbe to the southwest of Berlin, Magdeburg
is state capital and has a busy arts scene. One of its most popular
attractions is the Elbauenpark on the river, with
the tallest wooden tower in the world, the Millennium Tower.
The tower contains an exhibition on 6000 years of human development.
Cathedral Square, with its Gothic church surrounded
by Baroque buildings, stands at the heart of the old city centre,
with the Old Market Square (site of the Magdeburg Knight
monument) and the Town Hall.
Dessau
‘Second home’ of the Bauhaus Architectural
School, which moved from Weimar in the mid-1920s, and whose
building, the Bauhausstätten, designed by
Walter Gropius, is a designated World Heritage Site.
Quedlinburg
Located 55km (34 miles) southwest of Magdeburg,
this town has many 16th-century half-timbered houses such as the
Finkenherd and a Renaissance Town Hall, all restored to their original
condition.
Wittenberg
One of the most famous Reformation towns, where Martin Luther
nailed his ‘95 Theses Against Indulgences’ to the door
of the castle church in 1517. Numerous magnificent buildings from
the 16th century, Luther’s House, the Melanchton House,
the Castle Church and the buildings of the former University bear
witness to the town’s historical significance. |
