Magdeburg Cathedral (Dom St. Mauritius und Katharina) is the oldest Gothic cathedral in German-speaking lands — construction began in 1209, replacing a Romanesque cathedral that had burned down, and continued for over 300 years. The two tall Gothic towers define the city's skyline from the Elbe, and the interior is a landmark of early German Gothic: tall, austere, and impressive in scale.
The tombs inside are the main draw. Emperor Otto I (912-973), who founded the Holy Roman Empire and made Magdeburg the center of his realm, is buried here alongside his first wife Edith of Wessex. The cathedral also contains the remarkable antique sculpture of Magdeburg's patron saints by an unknown 13th-century master — the Wise and Foolish Virgins on the choir screen, considered among the finest examples of Gothic figural sculpture in Germany.
A modern note: the cathedral also contains Ernst Barlach's powerful bronze memorial to the victims of the First World War, a gaunt hovering angel that was removed by the Nazis in 1933 and returned after the war.