Nebra (official name: Nebra (Unstrut)) is a town in the district of

Burgenlandkreis Burgenlandkreis is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Its area is . History The district was established as Landkreis Burgenland by the merger of the former Burgenlandkreis and Landkreis Weißenfels as part of the reform of 2007. On 16 ...

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it th ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is situated on the river

Unstrut The Unstrut () is a river in Germany and a left tributary of the Saale. The Unstrut originates in northern Thuringia near Dingelstädt (west of Kefferhausen in the Eichsfeld area) and its catchment area is the whole of the Thuringian Basin. ...

. Nebra has become nationally and internationally known as the site where the Nebra sky disc, a notable

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

artifact, was discovered. The town has a population of around 3,300.

Geography

Location

Nebra lies between

Querfurt Querfurt () is a town in the Saalekreis district, or ''Kreis'', in southern Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is located in a fertile area on the Querne, west from Merseburg. In 2020, the town had a population of 10,454. The town Querfurt consists of ...

and

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. ...

on the

river in the west of

district.

Subdivisions

Neighboring communities

Neighboring towns are Querfurt, Barnstädt and Steigra (all three in Saalekreis) to the north, Karsdorf to the east,

Bad Bibra Bad Bibra () is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated northwest of Naumburg. It is part of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") An der Finne. Since July 2009 it has included the former m ...

to the south and

Kaiserpfalz The term ''Kaiserpfalz'' (, "imperial palace") or ''Königspfalz'' (, "royal palace", from Middle High German ''phal ne'' to Old High German ''phalanza'' from Middle Latin ''palatia'' luralto Latin ''palatium'' "palace") refers to a number of ...

to the west.

History

In 1962, four Magdalenian figurines were found near Nebra from the late

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...

, which belong to the oldest known artwork in Saxony-Anhalt. The figures are 12,000 to 14,000 years old. The town is perhaps most famous due to the

Nebra sky disk The Nebra sky disc (german: Himmelsscheibe von Nebra) is a bronze disc of around diameter and a weight of , having a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols. These symbols are interpreted generally as the Sun or full moon, a lunar cresc ...

, which was found in Wangen near Nebra in 1999. It only became public in 2002 when the finders tried to sell it and were eventually arrested following a sting operation in Basel, Switzerland. The sky disc is thought to have been created between 2100 and 1700 BCE and to have been buried in approximately 1600 BCE. The oldest historical documents mentioning Nebra date back to 876.

Town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...

were acquired in the 12th century. Nebra Castle was built in 1540 by the von Nißmitz brothers. For many centuries, red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

was mined in the region which was used for castles and farmhouses. Between 1952 and 1994, Nebra was the seat of the Nebra municipality in Halle district. The name of the town was changed on 1 January 1998, from ''Nebra'' to ''Nebra (Unstrut)''. On 1 July 2009 the previously separate village of Wangen was merged with Nebra, and on 1 September 2010 the village Reinsdorf was annexed.Gebietsänderungen vom 01. Januar bis 31. Dezember 2010
Statistisches Bundesamt Nebra today features the Courths-Mahler archives and ''Arche Nebra'', a museum on the history of the Nebra sky disk. The sky disc itself is exhibited at the

Halle State Museum of Prehistory The State Museum of Prehistory (''Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte'') in Halle (Saale) is the archaeological museum of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Founded in Naumburg in 1819, it was moved to Halle in 1825, and within Halle to its pre ...

Notable people

* Gallus Dreßler (1533–around 1585), cantor and composer *

Michael Ranft Michael Ranft (or Ranfft; also Rauff), in Latin Michael Ranfftius (9 December 1700 in Güldengossa – 18 April 1774 in Löbichau) was a Lutheran pastor, writer and historian who is known for his writings on vampires in Germany. Biography A past ...

(1700–1774), was the

diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

to Nebra 1727–1740. * Hedwig Courths-Mahler (1867–1950), bestseller author *

Dieter Lindner (racewalker) Dieter Lindner (18 January 1937 – 13 May 2021) was an East German athlete who mainly competed in the 20 kilometre walk. He won the silver medal for the United Team of Germany in the 20 kilometre walk at the 1964 Summer Olympics h ...

(born 1937), racewalker *

Georg Christoph Biller Georg Christoph Biller (20 September 1955 – 27 January 2022) was a German choral conductor. He conducted the Thomanerchor as the sixteenth Thomaskantor since Johann Sebastian Bach from 1992 to 2015. He was also a baritone, an academic teacher, ...

(1955–2022), chorus conductor and

Thomaskantor (Cantor at St. Thomas) is the common name for the musical director of the , now an internationally known boys' choir founded in Leipzig in 1212. The official historic title of the Thomaskantor in Latin, ', describes the two functions of cantor a ...

References

External links

{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Germany Burgenlandkreis