Zeitz Cathedral St. Peter and Paul

The Dom St Peter and Paul in Zeitz stands on a gentle rise in the southern edge of Sachsen-Anhalt. It began as an Ottonian royal church in the 10th century before becoming the cathedral of the short-lived Bishopric of Zeitz in 968. After the see moved to Naumburg the building served as a collegiate church, and later as the court chapel of the dukes of Sachsen-Zeitz. Its massive stone walls and three-aisled crypt still show the 11th-century core beneath later Gothic vaults and Baroque furnishings. The church is worth visiting for the rare survival of its Hall Crypt, built around 1050 with eight sturdy columns and traces of the original round-arched windows. After a 17th-century conversion into a ducal burial chapel, the crypt holds thirteen lead-zinc coffins of the Wettin line, including those of Duke Moritz and several of his children. The domed ceiling and the princes’ heraldic decorations make it one of central Germany’s most important Baroque sepulchral monuments. Inside, the 1671 altarpiece by Johann Caspar Sandmann frames a Crucifixion by Christian Schäfer, while the adjacent Baroque pulpit bristles with acanthus carvings and crowned cherubs. The organ, rebuilt in 2001 after earlier collapses, now stands on two lofts in the crossing, its pipes echoing the early Baroque style. Outside, the plain west front and the surviving medieval tower bases recall the building’s long history as a Romanesque landmark on the Romanesque Road.