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Quedlinburg is a town located north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1994 the medieval court and the old town was set on the UNESCO world heritage list.
Until 2007 it was the capital of the district of Quedlinburg. Some places in town with Romanesque architecture are part of the holiday route Romanesque Road, such as St. Servatius' church at the castles hill, St. Wigbert's church down the valley and St Marie's church on the Montsion's hill (Münzenberg). In the innermost parts of the town a wide selection of half-timbered buildings from at least five different centuries are to be found (including a 14th-century structure, one of Germany's oldest), while around the outer fringes of the old town there are wonderful examples of Jugendstil buildings, dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Since December 1994 the old town of Quedlinburg and the castle mount with the collegiate church are listed as one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. Quedlinburg is one of the best-preserved medieval and renaissance towns in Europe, having escaped major damage in World War II.
The castle and the cathedral still towers above the city the way they dominated the town in early Middle Ages. The cathedral is a prime example of German Romanesque style. The Domschatz, the cathedral treasure containing ancient Christian religious artefacts and books, was stolen by an American soldier and finally bought back to Quedlinburg in 1993 and is again on display here. During the Nazi regime, the memory of Henry I became a sort of cult, as Heinrich Himmler saw himself as the reincarnation of the "most German of all German" rulers. The collegiate church and castle were to be turned into a shrine for Nazi Germany. The Nazi Party tried to create a new religion. The cathedral was closed from 1938 and during the war. Liberation in 1945 brought back the Protestant bishop and the church bells, and the Nazi style eagle was taken down from the tower.