Dommuseum Ottonianum Magdeburg, Museum building near Cathedral Square, Magdeburg, Germany
The Dommuseum Ottonianum Magdeburg occupies the former Reichsbank building at Breiter Weg, a neoclassical structure built 1921–1923 by Philipp Nitze. Its roughly 640 m² of exhibition space is organized into three thematic sections: the Ottonian museum on Emperor Otto the Great and Queen Editha, the archbishopric of Magdeburg, and archaeological research in and around the cathedral. Highlights include Editha's lead coffin, Mediterranean textiles from her burial, grave goods of Archbishops Wichmann von Seeburg and Otto von Hessen, and a brick grave of a confidant of Otto the Great dated 963.
The idea for the museum came from the cathedral excavations of 2001 to 2010; in 2010 the Magdeburg city council decided to create it, and it opened on 4 November 2018. It is a joint project of the city, the Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt and the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology. The building, the former Reichsbank on the Breite Weg, was built 1921–1923 to plans by Philipp Nitze and survived the air raid of 16 January 1945 largely intact.
The museum's name combines "Ottonianum" with the Ottonian dynasty of Emperor Otto the Great (912–973), whose court made Magdeburg a centre of the empire. Its three thematic sections cover Otto and Queen Editha, the Archdiocese of Magdeburg, and the cathedral excavations. The displays include Editha's lead coffin and Mediterranean fabrics from her burial.
The museum sits directly across from the Cathedral at Cathedral Square and is easy to reach on foot. It is worth allowing time to view the different exhibition sections and examine the displayed objects without rushing.
The museum building, the Alte Reichsbank on Breiter Weg, was built from 1921 to 1923 to plans by architect Philipp Nitze in a neoclassical style and opened on 23 April 1923. It survived the air raid of 16 January 1945 largely undamaged, later housed the Staatsbank der DDR and a Deutsche Bundesbank branch until the mid-1990s.
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