The twelve figures in the west choir of Naumburg Cathedral are among the most famous sculptures of the Middle Ages, and once you have seen them, you understand why. Carved around the middle of the thirteenth century by an unknown artist known as the Naumburg Master, they represent the founders and benefactors of the cathedral, noblemen and noblewomen who had died two centuries earlier, but they look like real people, with individual faces, expressions and gestures. The most famous is Uta, the wife of Margrave Ekkehard, standing with her cloak drawn up to her face, cool and enigmatic, who has become an icon of German art. The cathedral, with its Romanesque and Gothic architecture and its rich sculpture, was listed by UNESCO in 2018.
Naumburg is a handsome old town of about thirty thousand people, with a market square surrounded by Renaissance and baroque buildings and the towers of the cathedral rising above the roofs. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche spent much of his youth here, and later his last years in the care of his mother; their house is a museum. Nearby, the school of Schulpforta, founded in a former Cistercian monastery, educated Nietzsche and many other famous Germans.
The surrounding landscape is the Saale-Unstrut wine region, one of the northernmost quality wine regions in Europe, with vineyards on steep terraces above the rivers, castles on the hills and small wine villages. Freyburg on the Unstrut is home to the Rotkäppchen sparkling wine cellars, and the Rudelsburg and Saaleck castles stand above the Saale near Bad Kösen. It is a gentle, beautiful landscape, sometimes called the Tuscany of the North by optimistic locals.
The riding here is relaxed and scenic, on country roads through the river valleys and over the hills, past vineyards, orchards and forests. The roads along the Saale and Unstrut are particularly pretty, with gentle curves and little traffic outside the weekends. Watch for cyclists on the popular cycle routes, and for the occasional rough surface. Naumburg is well stocked with filling stations and wine bars; Bad Kösen, six kilometres upriver, adds a saltworks with a long graduation wall and riverside cafes. Try the local wines, often dry and crisp, and the region's hearty cooking, including Thuringian sausages from just across the state border.