Bode Gorge, Germany’s Grand Canyon

10 April 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Bode Gorge View From 'witches′ Dance Floor' Into The Bode Gorge Artmechanic Cc By Sa 3.0

View from ‘Witches′ Dance Floor’ into Bode Gorge © ArtMechanic/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Bode Gorge (German: Bodetal) is a 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) long ravine that forms part of the Bode valley between Treseburg and Thale in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. The German term, Bodetal (literally “Bode Valley”), is also used in a wider sense to refer to the valleys of the Warme and Kalte Bode rivers that feed the River Bode.   read more…

New Synagogue in Dessau

17 January 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© M H.DE/cc-by-sa-4.0

© M H.DE/cc-by-sa-4.0

The New Synagogue, also known as the Weill Synagogue, is a Jewish place of worship in the city center of Dessau. It is the first newly built synagogue in the state of Saxony-Anhalt since German reunification.   read more…

Naumburg Cathedral in Saxony-Anhalt

1 August 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  4 minutes

© Wolkenkratzer/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Wolkenkratzer/cc-by-sa-4.0

Naumburg Cathedral (German: Naumburger Dom St. Peter und St. Paul), located in Naumburg, Germany, is the former cathedral of the Bishopric of Naumburg-Zeitz. The church building, most of which dates back to the 13th century, is a renowned landmark of the German late Romanesque and was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. The west choir with the famous donor portrait statues of the twelve cathedral founders (Stifterfiguren) and the Lettner, works of the Naumburg Master, is one of the most significant early Gothic monuments.   read more…

German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

21 February 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  7 minutes

Main building, formerly the bulding of the Freemasons' lodge 'The Three Swords' © panoramio.com - Michael aus Halle/cc-by-sa-3.0

Main building, formerly the bulding of the Freemasons’ lodge ‘The Three Swords’
© panoramio.com – Michael aus Halle/cc-by-sa-3.0

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (German: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on January 1, 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the Academia Naturae Curiosorum until 1687 when Emperor Leopold I raised it to an academy and named it after himself. It was since known under the German name Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina until 2007, when it was declared to be Germany’s National Academy of Sciences. The Leopoldina has a claim to be the oldest continuously existing learned society in the world. The validity of the claim depends in part on how certain definitional and historical questions are answered.   read more…

Synagogue of Halle (Saale)

27 January 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Halle Synagogue © Allexkoch/cc-by-sa-4.0

Halle Synagogue © Allexkoch/cc-by-sa-4.0

The synagogue of Halle (Saale) is the house of worship of the Jewish community in Halle (Saale), which had 555 members in 2018. The building was originally built in 1894 as the Tahara House of the Jewish cemetery, laid out in 1864 northeast of downtown Halle, from white and yellow bricks according to plans by the architects Gustav Wolff and Theodor Lehmann. The conversion to a synagogue took place from 1948 after some renovations (consecrated in 1953) as a replacement for the old synagogue in the city center, which was destroyed during the November pogroms in 1938.   read more…

Oranienbaum Palace in Saxony-Anhalt

6 December 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  9 minutes

Oranienbaum Palace © Michael Sander/cc-by-sa-3.0

Oranienbaum Palace © Michael Sander/cc-by-sa-3.0

Oranienbaum Palace is located in the town of Oranienbaum-Wörlitz in Saxony-Anhalt. It belongs to the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm. The castle, which is located in the district Oranienbaum, is located east of Dessau-Roßlau, only a few kilometers from the Wörlitzer Park. Oranienbaum Castle is one of four castles named after the House of Orange in Germany. They were built for four sisters, German rulers, who were born to the House of Orange. Besides Oranienbaum there are Oranienstein Palace near Diez and Oranienburg Palace in Oranienburg. The fourth, Oranienhof Palace near Bad Kreuznach, does not exist anymore. The former Dutch Queen Beatrix is patron of the restoration of the castle Oranienbaum. In 2004 and 2012 Beatrix visited Oranienbaum and visited the castle.   read more…

Town and Parish Church of St. Mary’s of Lutherstadt Wittenberg

1 August 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  13 minutes

Stadtkirche Wittenberg © M_H.DE/cc-by-sa-4.0

Stadtkirche Wittenberg © M_H.DE/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Stadt- und Pfarrkirche St. Marien zu Wittenberg (Town and Parish Church of St. Mary’s) is the civic church of the German town of Lutherstadt Wittenberg. The reformers Martin Luther and Johannes Bugenhagen preached there and the building also saw the first celebration of the mass in German rather than Latin and the first ever distribution of the bread and wine to the congregation – it is thus considered the mother-church of the Protestant Reformation. Since 1996 it has been a World Heritage Site – it, the Castle Church of All Saints (Schlosskirche), the Lutherhaus, the Melanchthonhaus and the surrounding Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm form the world’s densest concentration of World Heritage Sites in one area.   read more…

Barby on the Elbe

12 November 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Town hall © Mazbln/cc-by-sa-3.0

Town hall © Mazbln/cc-by-sa-3.0

Barby is a town in the Salzlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt. It is situated on the left bank of the Elbe river, near the confluence with the Saale, approx. 25 km (16 mi) southeast of Magdeburg. Since an administrative reform of 1 January 2010 it comprises the former municipalities of the administrative community Elbe-Saale, except for Gnadau, that joined Barby in September 2010. The burgward of Barby was first mentioned in a 961 deed by German king Otto I. Since the 12th century, the area was enfeoffed to the Counts of Barby descending from nearby Arnstein, who achieved Imperial immediacy in 1497. Upon the extinction of the line in 1659, the County of Barby fell to the Duchy of Saxe-Weissenfels, ruled by a cadet branch of the electoral Saxon House of Wettin.   read more…

Bernburg on river Saale

24 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

Bernburg Castle © Franzfoto

Bernburg Castle © Franzfoto

Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its moat.   read more…

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