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

Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut
The cultural landscape around Naumburg
Location within Germany
General information
Type	Cultural Landscape
Location	Saxony-Anhalt
Country	Germany
Coordinates	51°9′17″N 11°48′14″E / 51.15472°N 11.80389°E / 51.15472; 11.80389Coordinates: 51°9′17″N 11°48′14″E / 51.15472°N 11.80389°E / 51.15472; 11.80389
Website
naumburg-cathedral.de

″The Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut" is situated at the heart of the Federal Republic of Germany in the State of Saxony-Anhalt. It has been proposed by Germany for inscription in the List of World Heritage. The World Heritage nomination is composed of eleven component parts that are 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.

In 1998, Naumburg Cathedral was inscribed into the Tentative List for World Heritage nominations and extended seven years later by its surrounding cultural landscape. ″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.″.
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. 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.
On 1 February 2016, Germany submitted a renewed submission to the World Heritage Centre in Paris, UNESCO. This nomination will be discussed at the 41st meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Kraków, Poland, from 2 until 12 July 2017.