Quedlinburg Abbey was a house of secular canonesses (Frauenstift) in Quedlinburg in what is now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was founded in 936 on the initiative of Saint Matilda, the widow of King Henry the Fowler, as his memorial. For many centuries, the abbey and its abbesses enjoyed great prestige and influence. Quedlinburg Abbey was an Imperial Estate and one of the approximately forty self-ruling Imperial Abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire and was disestablished in 1802/3. Today, the mostly Romanesque buildings are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Photograph credit: Alexander Savin