page_title: Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut
section_title: Neuenburg Castle
hierarchical_section_title: Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut / Description of the cultural landscape / Component: Freyburg / Neuenburg Castle
caption_attribution_description: English: Neuenburg at night
context_page_description: 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. Naumburg Cathedral and the landscpae has been proposed by Germany for inscription in the List of World Heritage. On July 1, 2018, only Naumburg Cathedral was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
  The landscape around the World Heritage nomination "Naumburg Cathedral" 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.
context_section_description: Around 1090, it was most probably Louis the Springer  who built the vast and impressive complex of Neuenburg Castle. Situated in the border region, this fortified castle served military purposes and reflected ambitions, self-confidence and sophistication of the Ludowingians. Already in 1100, Neuenburg Castle was the largest and most important fortification in central Germany and remained of outstanding political and military significance until the 13th century. It was designed as a border castle for the powerful Ludowinger dynasty and was part of a network of the landgraves’ castles, which also included Wartburg Castle.  
  Built around 1090, Neuenburg Castle was extended and modernized on a large scale several times. With its 30 000 square meters, the castle was amongst the strongest architectural representations of military power in all of the empire. It has survived to a remarkable extend: Major sections of the curtain walls in the north and east, part of the gate, the bottom part of the castle, the castle keep, trenches in the east and in the south are conserved until today. The landmark big William (Dicker Wilhelm) is situated in the north-eastern part of the complex and visible from far away as a symbol of power. The castle keep III is classified as an independent development next to the similar residential towers (donjons) in the Rhineland region. Around 1225, a residential tower (residential tower II) was built probably for the landgrave's family outside the southern curtain wall. 1172 Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa visited Neuenburg Castle – the legend of the “living wall” of soldiers providing the best military defense has its roots in this legendary visit.
  The court culture of the Count Palatine at Neuenburg Castle was an extremely important center of literary activities in the Empire at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. The most important poets of the 13th century, namely Wolfram von Eschenbach  and Walther von der Vogelweide  stayed at Neuenburg Castle. Heinrich von Weldecke completed here the Eneas novel which was the foundation of the German language secular epic. ″When Veldeke was called to the court of Thuringia [..], he joined the entourage of a great patron and became the esteemed center of the most important literary circle that existed in Germany at the time″.
  The Double Chapel of Neuenburg was developed around 1220 and is one of the best preserved Romanesque buildings of Neuenburg Castle.
   In terms of its architectural shapes and structural ornamentation, it is a unique achievement by combining the Saxon tradition with the then latest developments in art which emerged in the Rhineland region.
   The upper floor of the Double Chapel is a landmark of art because of the play of colors of the black column shafts made of carboniferous limestone, which came from the Northern French and Belgian region of the Ardennes, 500 kilometers away with the multi-coloured structural ornamentation. The polyglobed arches on the underside of the transverse arches are an example for the influences from the Morish part of Spain transmitted by Rhenanian Art. They are the only example of this form of ornament to the east of the Rhine and thus represent a unique item in architectural history.
caption: Neuenburg at night
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