To visit Bad Gandersheim means to return to the origin of the Saxon kings and emperors.
To visit Bad Gandersheim means to return to the origin of the Saxon kings and emperors.
Duke of Saxony Luidolf (806-866) was the head of the first nobility who confessed themselves to Christianity under the reign of Charlemagne. The nobility dynasty Liudolfinger, later known as Ottonians, was named after him. Together with his wife Oda, he founded the Gandersheim Abbey in 852. Owing to the close relation to the imperial family, it had a similarly privileged position as the Quedlinburg Abbey, which was partly reigned by the same abbesses. Talking of abbesses: The first, Hathumod (852-874), was described in a contemporary biography, which was a rarity during that period of time. The sixth, Gerberga II (949-1001), supported Roswitha von Gandersheim, who was one of the first feminist authors in Europe after the Antiquity. Due to her baroque court, Elisabeth Ernestine Antonie (1713-1766) justified her title as “Princess-Abbess”. A different kind of journey back to the past is enabled by a special project of the city: step through the “Portal zur Geschichte (Gateway to History)” and dive into the time of Ottonians and the 1200-year history of the city while walking to the Monastery Churches St. Anastasius and St. Innocentius, to an extraordinary church treasure, to the Monastery Complexes Brunshausen and Clus, to the City Museum, the Abbey Building or to the Castle of the Dukes of Brunswick.