Arnold von Westfalen

Arnold von Westfalen, also called Arnold Westfäling of Meißen, is the most important Saxon master builder of the fifteenth century. Attested as early as 1459, he was received as master builder in June 1470 and became, at the latest in 1471, responsible for all the princely building works of the Wettins. His masterpiece is the palace at Meißen, later called the Albrechtsburg, designed for the brothers Ernest and Albert of Saxony as a two-courtyard building closer to a palace than to a fortress. There he developed a late Gothic vocabulary new to Saxony: cell vaults, curtain arches, piers with hollowed and twisted mouldings, and a great spiral staircase. He also worked on the cathedral at Meißen and on several other castles in the region. He died in Meißen around 1481-1482 without having seen the north wing completed; his pupil Konrad Pflüger continued the work.