King Palatinate Pöhlde

The origins of the palace lie in a manor of the Liudolfinger dynasty, which Matilda the Saint received from her husband Henry I in 927. After his death, she asked her son Otto I to convert the estate into a canonry. King Otto I decreed the establishment of a Benedictine monastery next to the palace in 952. The complex, consisting of at least twelve buildings, was uncovered by archaeological excavations between 1964 and 1974, revealing traces of an older Germanic settlement from the 2nd to 4th centuries. The palace was a residence for subsequent rulers, including Henry II, who visited it 27 times. A dark chapter was the assassination of Ekkehard I of Meissen in 1002 in Pöhlde, who had laid claim to the German throne. Antipope Gregory VI also visited Henry II here in 1012. During the Peasants' War in 1525, the monastery church was severely damaged; the current church was built on its foundations in 1668.