Benedictine monks of St George, the canons of St Moritz in Naumburg, and the Naumburg Cathedral chapter participated in the costs and maintenance of the Kleine Saale in return for rights of utilization of mill streams. A water expert from Pforta monastery and the highest-ranking fisherman from the Naumburg Cathedral chapter were assigned to perform the technical maintenance of the Kleine Saale and to settle any disputes. Vineyards The Cistercians expanded their property from the Köppelberg vineyard, and created nine vineyards on Saalberg Hill between 1195 and 1208. The fact that they purchased that part of the hill above their own vineyard sites is an indication of the beginning of medieval steep slope cultivation, which is an important documentation of the increasing wine-growing activities on steep slopes. Hence, a large, continuous wine-growing area had been created by the monks of Pforta. At the end of the Middle Ages, the monastery owned 58 vineyards at 27 locations between Bad Kösen and Roßbach. According to the records, Pforta had cellar and wine masters (1229 magister vini) in the 13th century demonstrating highly developed wine-growing and wine-making. The vines were planted irregularly, and different grape varieties were planted together (documented in 1234). Between them, vegetables and other agricultural crops were planted on acres. Fruit-bearing trees or walnut trees as well as hops were also planted together with the vines. The vineyards were enclosed (first documented in 1268), and featured dry stone walls and terraces on the slopes, stairs, water drainage ditches or buildings as early as in the High Middle Ages. World heritage nomination The monastery has been proposed by Germany for inscription in the List of World Heritage Sites. The World Heritage nomination Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut is representative for the processes that shaped the continent during the High Middle Ages between 1000 and 1300: Christianization, the so-called Landesausbau, and the dynamics of cultural exchange and transfer characteristic for this very period. This cultural landscape was specifically shaped by the Cistercian monks of the Pforta monastery which developed into a driving force for the landscape as a whole during the High Middle Ages, fostering technology and agriculture, education, and eastward Christianization. References External links Romanesque Road website (German) Page at Transromanica.com (German) Video of the cultural landscape of Naumburg 1130s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1137 establishments in Europe Cistercian monasteries