Thursday 25 March 2021

GERMANY

A UNESCO cover from Germany with a single stamps issued in 2016, celebrating the Naumburg Cathedral. The Naumburg Cathedral (German: Naumburger Dom St. Peter und St. Paul), located in Naumburg, 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. The church was erected with the relocation of the Episcopal See from Zeitz in 1028, next to an old parish church. Thus it is the proto-cathedral of the former Catholic Diocese of Naumburg-Zeitz. With the Reformation, Naumburg and its cathedral became Protestant. Naumburg Cathedral remains a Protestant parish church to this day.