Saxony-Anhalt State Attractions Sachsen-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt state is located in north-central Germany. The Elbe River flows through the state and the Harz Mountains occupy the south-west corner.

Elbe Valley

Visitors can travel the Elbe River for tours of the Elbe Valley from the waterway. The Elbe travels through Germany passing many small towns, various types of landscaped valleys, and a mixed forest near Dessau.

Unstrut Valley

The Unstrut rises at a height of 395m/1,296ft in the limestone hills of the Eichsfeld, to the west of Dingelstädt. It is the principal

Highlights:	Arendsee, Germany	Gardelegen, Germany

Bad Lauchstadt, Germany

Highlights:	Goethe Theater	Kurgarten

Halle an der Saale, Germany

Highlights:	Burg Giebichenstein Moritzburg, Halle Red Tower, Halle	Market Church, Halle Francke Foundations Market, Halle

Sangerhausen, Germany

Highlights:	Old Castle	Spengler Museum

Quedlinburg, Germany

Situation and characteristics

Quedlinburg, lying on the river Bode in the northern Harz foreland, is an attractive town with many half-timbered houses and other fine old buildings, set in beautiful countryside.

Quedlinburg was the birthplace of the first German woman doctor, Dorothea Erxleben (1715), the educationalist Johann Christoph Guts Muths (1759) and Carl Ritter (1779), who ranks with Alexander von Humboldt as one of the founders of modern scientific geography.

Castle Museum

Above the town of Quedlinburg rises the Schlossberg, with the Renaissance Schloss (16th-17th c.) and richly appointed state apartments (18th c.). In the conventual buildings of the old imperial abbey is the Schlossmuseum.

Address: Schlossberg 1, D-06484 Quedlinburg, Germany

Opening hours: May 1 to Sep 30: 10am-6pm; Closed: Mon
Oct 1 to Apr 30: 9am-5pm; Closed: Mon

Entrance fee: FREE

St Servatius Church

The Romanesque church of St Servatius (12th C.) in Quedlinburg is an aisled basilica. In the crypt can be found the tomb of the Emperor Henry I and his wife Mathilde. The rich church treasury is displayed in the sacristy.

Address: Domkusterei, Schlossberg 9, D-06484 Quedlinburg, Germany

Opening hours: May 1 to Oct 31: 10am-6pm; Sun: 12pm-6pm; Sat: 10am-4pm; Closed: Mon
Nov 1 to Apr 30: 10am-4pm; Closed: Mon

Entrance fee in EUR: Adult €3.00, Child €1.50

Guides: Guided tour available as optional extra.

Klopstock House

At the foot of the Schlossberg in Quedlinburg is a magnificent 16th C. patrician house (now occupied by the Museum of Literature), in which the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, the first of the German classical writers, was born in 1724.

Behind the Klopstock House (entrance from Finkenherd) is the Lyonel Feininger Gallery, with a large collection of watercolors and graphic art by the Expressionist painter of that name, an associate of Gropius at the Bauhaus.

Opening hours: 10am-5pm; Closed: Mon

Always closed on: New Year's Eve (Dec 31), Christmas Eve - Christian (Dec 24)

St Wigbert Church

Southwest of the Schlossberg in Quedlinburg stands the monastic church of St Wigbert (Klosterkirche St Wiperti; 12th-13th C.), an aisled Romanesque basilica with a flat roof, a straight-ended choir and a Romanesque doorway. Under the choir is the aisled and barrel-vaulted St Wigbert's Crypt (originally Carolingian, ninth C.; rebuilt after 961). During restoration work in 1956-57 a Romanesque doorway from a former monastery on the Münzenberg was built into the south side of the church.

Central Area

In Quedlinburg's central area is the Markt containing the charming Town Hall (Rathaus), a two-story Renaissance building with coats of arms on the doorway (1616-19) and a figure of Roland, probably dating from 1426.

Fachwerkmuseum

Quedlinburg has a number of richly decorated half-timbered houses from a period of six centuries. The oldest is the Ständerbau (14th C.) at Wordgasse 3, now the Museum of Half-Timbering (Fachwerkmuseum).

The houses at Stieg 28 (Alter Klopstock) and Marktstrasse 2 represent the heyday of the Dutch style (c. 1560). Among the few old secular buildings in stone are the Hagensches Freihaus (Klink 11), a three-story Renaissance building (1564), and the Grünhagenhaus (1701) in the Markt. In the new town, at Steinweg 22, is the Old Exchange (Alte Börse) of 1683.

Opening hours: 11am-5pm; Closed: Thu

Entrance fee: FREE

St Blaise's and St Benedict's

Two other churches in the old town of Quedlinburg are the parish church of St Blaise (St Blasii; 1713-15, restored), an aisleless Baroque church on an octagonal plan, with galleries and a stucco ceiling, and the Market Church (Marktkirche) of St Benedict, a 15th C. hall-church (14th C. choir; monuments) with barrel-vaulting and timber ceilings.

St Nicholas's Church

In the New Town of Quedlinburg is the parish church of St Nicholas (Nikolaikirche), a 14th C Gothic hall-church with groined vaulting; richly decorated reredos, Early Gothic font.

Feininger Gallery

Drawings and watercolors by expressionist painter Lyonel Feininger are displayed at the Feininger Gallery.

Address: Finkenherd 5A, D-06484 Quedlinburg, Germany

Opening hours: Apr 1 to Oct 31: 10am-6pm; Closed: Mon
Nov 1 to Mar 31: 10am-5pm; Closed: Mon

Always closed on: New Year's Day (Jan 1), New Year's Eve (Dec 31), Christmas Eve - Christian (Dec 24)

Entrance fee in EUR: Adult €6.00, Child 18 & under €3.00

Surroundings

Gernrode

Some 7km/4.5mi south of Quedlinburg, at the foot of the Stubenberg, lies the old town of Gernrode, with a notable church.

Stiftskirche

The former monastic church of St Cyriacus (probably begun about 959) in Gernrode, near Quedlinburg, is now the parish church. It is one of the finest churches of the Ottonian period in Germany. The present west end, main apse and crypt date from a rebuilding in the early 12th C. The church was thoroughly restored between 1858 and 1872.

Address: Burgstrasse 3, D-06507 Gernrode, Germany

Opening hours: Apr 1 to Sep 30: 9am-5pm; Sun: 11am-5pm; Sat: 9am-4pm
Oct 31 to Mar 31: 9am-4pm; Sun: 11am-4pm

Entrance fee: FREE

Selketalbahn

A narrow-gauge steam railroad, the Selketalbahn, runs 12km/7.5mi south of Gernrode to Herzgerode.

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Selke Valley

The river Selke, a right-bank tributary of the Bode, rises on the south side of the Ramberg (582m/1,910ft), a granite massif in the Unterharz, near the old mining town of Harzgerode. The Selke valley is less deeply indented than that of the Bode, with considerable stretches of wide flat meadowland.

Many place-names (Selkemühle, Schneidemühle, Silberhütte, Stahlhammer, Kupferhammer, etc.) bear witness to the harnessing of the Selke in earlier days to provide water power for the smelting of metal ores and the production of hardware.

Highlights:	Cathedral Convent of Our Lady Magdeburg Horseman	Rotehorn Park Rothensee Ship-Lift Cellar in Buttergasse

Stendal, Germany

Highlights:	Uenglinger Tor Cathedral of St Nicholas	Town Hall

Bad Schmiedeberg, Germany

Situation and characteristics

The spa of Bad Schmiedeberg (mud baths) lies in a wide valley on the east side of the hilly and wooded Dübener Heide (Düben Heath).

The pattern of the town is set by the crooked main street with its 16th-18th C. houses. Among them are a number of Renaissance buildings with bench recesses in the doorways.

Highlights:	Bauhaus Bauhaus-Siedlung Schloss Mosigkau	Luisium Schloss Georgium Picture Gallery Zerbst, Germany

Salzwedel, Germany

Highlights:	St Mary's Church	St Catherine's Church

Tangermunde, Germany

Highlights:	St Marie Cathedral, Havelberg, Germany Jerichow, Germany St Stephen's Church Fortifications	Town Hall Half-timbered Houses Town Gates

Thale, Germany

Highlights:	Rosstrappe Landscape, Bode Valley Mountain Theater, Thale Harz	Cableway Hexentanzplatz

Ballenstedt, Germany

Highlights:	Palace	Roseburg

Bernburg, Germany

Highlights:	Palace	Houses

Schloss, Breitenburg, Germany

Schloss Breitenburg is an impressive angular structure. Its chapel dates from 1585 and was the first Protestant place of worship in Schleswig-Holstein. Schloss Breitenburg houses valuable collections and is owned by descendants of the original family that owned it. The fountain in the courtyard is from 1592.

Eisleben, Germany

Highlights:	Martin Luther's Birthplace	Market Church

Halberstadt, Germany

Highlights:	Hamersleben, Germany Cathedral of St Stephen Gleimhaus	Church of Our Lady Surroundings

Naumburg, Germany

Highlights:	Naumburg Cathedral Founder Figures, Naumburg Cathedral	Town Hall

Querfurt, Germany

Highlights:	Burg Querfurt	Old Town

Weissenfels, Germany

Highlights:	Gustav Adolf Museum	Lutzen, Germany

Wernigerode, Germany

Highlights:	Half-timbered Houses Schloss Baumannshöhle Hermannshöhle, Rübeland	Town Hall Burg Regenstein, Blankenburg Blankenburg, Germany

Wittenberg, Germany

Highlights:	Luther House (Museum) All Saints Castle Church St Mary's Church	Melanchthon House Town Hall

Havelberg - Dom St Marien (Prignitz-Museum)

The Prignitz Museum in the town of Havelberg is housed in the Cathedral of St Mary. Displays include a variety of sculptures, chandeliers and triumphal crosses. A history of the Saxe-Anhalt is also on display in the museum.

Highlights:	Schloss (Museum)	Aken, Germany

Merseburg, Germany

Highlights:	Cathedral Archives Merseburg Cathedral	Merseburg Schloss

Worlitz, Germany

Highlights:	Wörlitz Park Gothic House	Schloss Wörlitz

Zeitz, Germany

Highlights:	Schlosskirche	Fortifications

Saxony-Anhalt State Attractions Sachsen-Anhalt

Castle Museum

St Servatius Church

Klopstock House

St Wigbert Church

Central Area

Fachwerkmuseum

St Blaise's and St Benedict's

St Nicholas's Church

Feininger Gallery

Surroundings

Gernrode

Stiftskirche

Selketalbahn

Burg Falkenstein

Selketalbahn

Town Hall

Kurhaus

Town Church