Essen Minster, Gothic cathedral in Essen, Germany

Essen Minster is a Gothic hall church in the center of Essen with an octagonal western tower and a crypt, both built from light sandstone. The interior divides into three aisles of equal height, separated by slender pillars and lit through tall stained-glass windows.

The building originated from a women's abbey founded around 845 by Bishop Altfrid of Hildesheim. After severe damage in World War II, reconstruction took place in the 1950s while preserving the Gothic framework.

The treasury holds the Golden Madonna, the oldest free-standing sculpture of Mary north of the Alps. Alongside it, medieval reliquaries, manuscripts, and liturgical vestments reveal the wealth of the former women's abbey and remain accessible to visitors today.

The minster stands on the Burgplatz in the city centre, with the separate Church of St. Johann Baptist at its west end, linked to the octagonal westwork by a short atrium. A cloister that once served the abbey runs along the north side. The treasury with the Golden Madonna is a separate point of interest within the complex.

The octagonal westwork and the crypt survive from the Ottonian building that preceded the Gothic church, and the westwork connects by a short atrium to the separate Church of St. Johann Baptist, once the parish church of the abbey's subjects. The first church on the site burned in 946, an event the Cologne Annals record as "Astnide cremabatur".