Old Synagogue

Essen Cathedral was once the collegiate church of Essen Abbey, founded around 845 by St. Altfrid, Bishop of Hildesheim, around which the city of Essen developed. The present building, which was rebuilt after its destruction during the Second World War, is a Gothic church, built after 1275 from pale sandstone. The octagonal-shaped Western Massif and the crypt are survivors of the pre-Romanesque Ottonian building that stood here. To the north of the church is a cloister which was once used by the abbey. The cathedral is famous for housing the Golden Madonna of Essen. Dated around the year 980, it is both the oldest known sculpture of the Madonna and the oldest free-standing medieval sculpture north of the Alps.

Construction of the Church of the Resurrection in Essen began in 1929. It was finished in 1930. The architect was Otto Bartning. With the ultra-modern concrete skeleton building, Bartning transferred the tradition of the Protestant central church into the objective formal language of modernity. The stained glass windows were designed by Johan (Jan) Thorn Prikker. The glazing was largely lost during World War II and was restored until 2007 according to the original cartoons.

The Post-war synagogue in Essen is an Ashkenazi synagogue built in 1958-59 by architects Dieter Knoblauch and Hans Heise. This concrete building still serves as a synagogue.