Halle Cathedral

Originally founded in 1271 by Dominican monks as the monastery church of St. Paul to the Holy Cross and completed around 1330, the building was simple, without a tower or transept. From about 1520, Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg had the church externally redesigned by Bastian Binder and reconsecrated in 1523 as a collegiate church. At this time, it was popularly known as the “Cathedral.” Albrecht amassed an immense collection of relics, the “Halle Sanctuary,” whose indulgence trade contributed to the Reformation. An interior, created by artists such as Matthias Grünewald and Lukas Cranach the Elder, transformed the church into a total work of art of the late Gothic and early Renaissance. After Albrecht's flight in 1541, the movable furnishings were moved to Aschaffenburg.