I take Naumburg cathedral as the epitome of central-european church from first half and mid of13th century. The monumental building has two choirs, two rood screens, one crypta, four towers, adjacent cloister. The highlight is obviously the decorations of the west choir (12 statues of founders, rood screen, floral decoration, stained glass windows). I loved not only Ekkehard and Uta, but all the sculptures and stone carvings of the western choir from ca. 1250. The floral decoration is simply beautiful and naturalistic (see PHOTO) - the leaves seem to be in the wind - that is quite typical for this period of early gothic in central/eastern Europe and can be seen also in several churches in Czechia, but the origin of the floral decoration can be found obviously in France (Reims, Amiens, Paris). I could see other works of Naumburg`s master in Meissen cathedral. The Naumburg work is however the best one.

I visited Naumburg and several places around ca. 15 years ago, I could see also sites that were included in one of the trials to enter the list. Well, all the process was a little bit odd, but the result that only cathedral became WHS is positive.

Visited again in August 2019: I enjoyed my secon visit to the cathedral a lot and spent inside around two hours... I was also surpprised how pleasant and nicely reconstructed all the historical center of Naumburg is.