Magdeburg Cathedral of St. Mauritius and St. Catherine, or Magdeburg Cathedral for short, is the preaching church of the regional bishop of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany, a Protestant parish church, and the landmark of the city of Magdeburg. The cathedral is the first Gothic cathedral on German soil to be designed from the outset and the earliest to be completed, as well as the largest sacred building in Central Germany. It was built from 1209 as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Magdeburg, consecrated in 1363, and completed in 1520 (the completion of the west towers). The first cathedral was badly damaged in a city fire in 1207. Its origins date back to the founding of a monastery in 937; the monastery church was expanded from 955 onwards and elevated to a cathedral in 968. The cathedral is the burial church of Otto the Great and his first wife, Editha. After severe damage from Allied air raids on Magdeburg in 1944/1945 and restoration after the war, the cathedral was reopened in 1955. It is owned by the Saxony-Anhalt Cultural Foundation, founded in 1994 by the state of Saxony-Anhalt.