Stendal - Roland

The fortified town of Stendal was founded by the first Brandenburg Margrave Albert the Bear and granted Magdeburg rights about 1160. A deed issued by Emperor Heinrich II in 1022, in which the village appears among the possessions of the Michaeliskloster in Hildesheim, is a 12th-century forgery.

Stendal quickly prospered as a center of commerce and trade. The parish of St. Jacobi was founded in the 12th century. The construction of a Franciscan monastery began in 1230. In the 13th century, the Stendal Seafarers' Guild was formed, which traded its own ships in the Baltic and North Sea areas. The oldest documented mention of the church of St. Marien dates back to 1283. Stendal received city walls around 1300 and in 1338 a Latin school was built. The local merchants joined the Hanseatic League in 1358 and purchased the privilege of minting from the Brandenburg margraves in 1369.

Just like in neighboring Tangermünde, the citizens of Stendal rebelled against the beer tax in 1488.
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The figure of Roland, known through the "Chanson de Roland", had the status of a folk hero in the Middle Ages. The fame goes back to the fate of Hruotland, the alleged nephew of Charlemagne, who died in a skirmish against the Basques in the Pyrenees in the Roncesvalles Valley. His legendary sword is stuck in a rock at Rocamadour.

The Roland is a legal symbol that embodied high jurisdiction, market freedom, or civil liberty. On the corner of the town hall is a faithful copy of the Roland from 1525. The total height of the statue is 7.80 m.