"Magdeburg Cathedral"

The first church was founded September 21, 937 at the location of the current cathedral and was an abbey called St. Maurice (St. Moritz), dedicated to Saint Maurice and financed by Emperor Otto I, the Great.  The entire cathedral St. Maurice was destroyed on Good Friday in 1207 by a city fire.Archbishop Albrecht II von Kefernburg decided to construct a completely new cathedral. The highly educated Prince-Archbishop Albert I of Käfernburg, having traveled in Italy and France, decided to construct the new cathedral modelled upon the Gothic architecture that had intrigued him in France. The French style was completely unknown in Germany, and the hired craftsmen only gradually mastered it. The Gothic influence increased especially between 1235 and 1260. As the construction was supervised by different people in the span of 300 years, many changes were made to the original plan, and the cathedral size expanded greatly.  Construction was completed  in 1363. At this time, the cathedral was dedicated not only to St Maurice as before, but also to Saint Catherine. In 1477 construction began again to add two towers.  The construction of the cathedral was completed in 1520 with the placement of the ornamental cross on the north tower. 

On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther published the 95 Theses in Wittenberg, Germany, an event considered to mark the start of the Protestant Reformation. Luther preached in Magdeburg in 1524. Magdeburg became a leading site of the Reformation, and was outlawed by the emperor. The Catholic Church stored the cathedral treasure in Aschaffenburg for safekeeping, but it would later be lost to the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War. The priests of the cathedral also converted to Protestantism, and on the first Advent Sunday in 1567, the first Protestant worship service was held in the cathedral.