The church building, most of which dates back to the 13th century, is a renowned landmark of the German late Romanesque and was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018.

[1] The west choir with the famous donor portrait statues of the twelve cathedral founders (Stifterfiguren) and the Lettner, works of the Naumburg Master, is one of the most significant early Gothic monuments.

However, it is likely that Markgraf (Margrave) Ekkehard I of Meissen and the most powerful man on the eastern border of the Holy Roman Empire was the founder.

[4]: 2 He erected a residence on a roughly 25 metres (82 ft) high rock above the right bank of the Saale river, near the mouth of the Unstrut.

Ekkehard was murdered in 1002 at Pöhlde Abbey in the Harz hills, but it was not possible to bury him at Naumburg yet, as neither castle nor the attached monastery was yet finished.

Only once this was accomplished did his sons, the Meissen margraves Hermann and Ekkehard II have his body and those of his ancestors moved to the Georgenkloster at Naumburg.

Soon after the approval of the relocation of the episcopal see, in the Spring of 1029, just to the east of the existing parish church the construction of the early-Romanesque cathedral was begun.

In 1044, during the reign of Bishop Hunold of Merseburg, the church was consecrated and the patron saints of Peter and Paul were designated, adopted from Zeitz Cathedral.

However, it did not remain in this late-Romanesque form long for by the mid-13th century the early-Gothic west choir was added, replacing the old parish church.

The fire also destroyed the three-aisled nave of the collegiate church dedicated to Mary next door to the cathedral, of which today only the choir remains.

This was undone by a "purification" in 1874/8 aimed at restoring the cathedral to a medieval, i.e. Romanesque/Gothic look, even at the price of replacing Baroque items with new Romanesque/Gothic Revival art.

Situated in the western choir, the twelve life-sized sculptures (eight men and four women) show nobles who were among the founders of the cathedral.

[7] The cathedral's windows feature work by Neo Rauch in the Elisabethkapelle and by Thomas Kuzio [de] in the crypt and the baptistery.

Since 1999, 'Naumburg Cathedral and the landscape of the rivers Saale and Unstrut – an important dominion in the High Middle Ages' are included in the candidate list for UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany.