The Cathedral garden & the garden of the Naumburg Master
The Naumburg Cathedral garden surrounds a large area immediately to the southwest of the Cathedral. This garden of approximately two and a half acres invites the visitor to stroll and enjoy the park, and perhaps indulge in a cup of coffee.
Until the opening of the 2011 exhibit, this area of the Cathedral grounds was not open to the public. Unified within it are historic pond and pool complexes, the bastions of the medieval “Immunity Walls”, as well as the gardens of the former homes of the canons. In harmony with the newly redesigned Cathedral Garden, the garden of the Naumburg Master manages to create a relaxing and atmospheric ambience in which the Cathedral itself is situated and embedded.
Within the park complex, in close proximity to the west Choir, the “Garden of the Naumburg Master” is situated in which the visitor may study and admire the local plant world. Exactly these plants served to inspire the Naumburg Master; he used these plants as models for the capitals, the friezes, and the keystones of the west rood screens and the west choir. On both the west rood screen and in the west choir of the Cathedral are over 150 original capitals on which botanically correct and identifiable foliage are to be found.
Within the grounds of the Cathedral garden and in the course of the Exhibition a recreation of a medieval artisans’ and artists’ workshop (Bauhütte) shall be opened in which visitors may study and experience both the administrative and artistic processes of building and creating a medieval Cathedral. Here visitors may experience, for example, the creation of a statue such as Uta or Ekkehard, perhaps the most wellknown of the twelve figurative sculptures.
