Monastery of Our Lady (Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen)
The oldest surviving building in Magdeburg, a serene Romanesque monastery whose stone cloisters and slender twin towers have watched over the Elbe city for nearly a thousand years. Today its vaulted halls hold one of the finest contemporary art collections in eastern Germany.
About this place
Rising quietly a few steps from the mighty cathedral, the Monastery of Our Lady is a rare survivor from Magdeburg's earliest Christian centuries. A collegiate chapter was established on this spot around 1017, and from 1063 a new columned basilica took shape, completed in 1078 with the calm, muscular geometry that defines German Romanesque. In 1129 Archbishop Norbert of Xanten handed the abbey to the Premonstratensian order he himself had founded, and for the rest of the Middle Ages this became the most important Premonstratensian house in the German lands. The complex is a highlight of the Romanesque Road, prized for its barrel-vaulted halls, its intimate cloister, and the delicate well-house tucked into a corner of the courtyard. Secularised long ago and reborn in the 1970s as the city's art museum, it now stages international contemporary art and sculpture, while its former church served for decades as the Georg Philipp Telemann concert hall. A sculpture garden wraps the walls, letting visitors meet works by masters like Barlach and Rodin without ever buying a ticket.
Key facts
- 1017 year — The collegiate chapter was founded here, making this the oldest surviving building in Magdeburg
- 1129 year — Archbishop Norbert of Xanten entrusted the abbey to the Premonstratensian order he had just founded
- 4 masters — Sculptors Barlach, Rodin, Maillol and Lehmbruck feature among the works in its vaulted halls
📍 Regierungsstraße 4-6, 39104, Magdeburg