The Imperial Palace of Goslar (German: Kaiserpfalz Goslar) is a historical building complex at the foot of the Rammelsberg hill in the south of the town of Goslar north of the Harz mountains, central Germany. It covers an area of about 340 by 180 metres. The palace grounds originally included the Kaiserhaus, the old collegiate church of St. Simon and St. Jude, the palace chapel of St. Ulrich and the Church of Our Lady (Liebfrauenkirche). The Kaiserhaus, which has been extensively restored in the late 19th century,^[1] was a favourite imperial residence, especially for the Salian emperors. As early as the 11th century, the buildings of the imperial palace had already so impressed the chronicler Lambert of Hersfeld that he described it as the "most famous residence in the empire". Since 1992, the palace site, together with the Goslar's Old Town and the Rammelsberg has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its millennium-long association with mining and testimony to the exchange and advancement of mining technology throughout history.^[2]

The palace district is located in the southern part of the town of Goslar. The area is dominated on the west by the north–south oriented Kaiserhaus, the central building of the whole complex. To the north, it was once joined at right angles by the Church of Our Lady, separated by a small courtyard, but there is nothing left of the church today. Its foundations are under the path leading up to the Kaiserhaus. To the south, now connected by a 19th-century arcade to the Kaiserhaus, is the Chapel of St. Ulrich. To the east, opposite the Kaiserhaus stood the east–west aligned collegiate church of St. Simon and St. Jude, of which only the north porch remains. The plan of the church is, however, incorporated into the surface of the present-day car park. To the palace grounds belonged also the residential and working buildings of the canons, the houses of the ministeriales and the imperial entourage, the stables and storehouses. In addition, the whole area was surrounded by a wall.

The earliest origins of the imperial palace are probably in a royal hunting lodge, as Adam of Bremen mentioned for the Ottonian period. In 1005 Henry II erected a first imperial mansion in Goslar, which, due to the rich ore deposits under the nearby Rammelsberg, soon outstripped the nearby palace of Werla. In the 1030s Conrad II began to expand the site by laying the foundation stone for the Church of Our Lady. The district was completed and enjoyed its heyday under his son, Henry III. In 1048 Henry summoned to Goslar one of the foremost architects of his day, a man who later became Bishop of Osnabrück, Benno II. Under Benno's expert guidance the buildings that had been worked on since the 1040s were completed in the first half of the 1050s: a new Kaiserhaus, the one that we know today, and the Collegiate Church of St. Simon and St. Jude. Uncertain, however, is the date of the chapel dedicated to Saint Ulrich. It is believed to have been built either during the time of Henry III, Henry V or even Lothar III (from Süpplingenburg).

A number of significant historical events have taken place in the palace district including:

• On 11 November 1050 Henry IV was born here.
• In the late summer of 1056 Pope Victor II was the guest of Henry III for several weeks in the Imperial Palace. He was present at his death in Bodfeld in the Harz and then organized the transfer of power to Henry's widow, Empress Agnes.
• At Pentecost in 1063, the Goslar Precedence Dispute led to a bloodbath in the cathedral, which was witnessed by the young Henry IV. A dispute broke out between Bishop Hezilo of Hildesheim and Abbot Widerad of Fulda over the seating arrangements, which ended in a half-day-long, bloody carnage.
• In summer 1073 Henry IV had to escape from the Imperial Palace to the nearby castle of Harzburg to flee the Saxon rebels.
• At Christmas 1075 Henry IV received in Goslar a letter from Pope Gregory VII, in which he threatened him with excommunication, thus starting the Investiture Controversy.
• In 1081 the antiking to Henry IV, Hermann of Salm, was crowned and anointed in the palace.
• Between 1152 and 1188, the Imperial Palace was at times both the venue for, and at times the cause of, the dispute between Emperor Frederick I and Duke Henry the Lion.
• In July 1219 Frederick II held an Imperial Diet (German Reichstag) at the Imperial Palace and on that occasion received the Imperial Regalia, that Otto IV had kept at the Harzburg.

1253 was the last time a German king, William of Holland, resided at the palace. Thereafter it fell into decline. In 1289 a fire razed many of the buildings to the ground. The newest residential building was then demolished to its foundations. The following year the palaced district went into the possession of the town of Goslar. The hall was used for a long time as a court, partly by Goslar's sheriff (Stadtvogt) and partly as a Saxon district court, but was increasingly "abused" as a warehouse or store. For example, both the halls of the Kaiserhaus and the older living quarters were used in the mid-16th century as a granary. The Chapel of St. Ulrich was used as a prison from 1575, something which at least helped to preserve it. The towers of the Church of Our Lady collapsed in 1672, and the rest of the church in 1722. Its stones were used as building material. The walls of the cathedral were already reported in 1331 as collapsing and, in 1530, a tower fell down. In 1802 only a ruin was left, which was sold on 19 July 1819 for 1504 talers for demolition. Only the north portal remains and still gives an impression of the former grandeur of the cathedral.

In 1865 walls in the Kaiserhaus again fell down and the possibility of demolition was on the agenda of Goslar's Town Council. This was averted and, instead, a state commission recommended that the building be restored. Construction work began on 14 August 1868. On 15 August 1875 Emperor William I paid a visit to the site and gave the project in effect a "national blessing". In 1879 the restoration of the building was completed.

In the years 1913/14 and again in 1922 archaeological investigations in the palace district were carried out by Professor Uvo Hölscher, thanks to which the foundations of the Church of Our Lady were re-discovered.

The Imperial Palace is one of the most outstanding tourist attractions in the town of Goslar and the Harz region. The Kaiserhaus may be visited daily and guided tours are available, whilst, the old quarters are used for administrative purposes and exhibitions. In addition, in the Goslar Museum (town museum), there are exhibits from the palace district, especially from the Monastery of St. Simon and St. Jude, for example, the Krodo Altar and a number of stained glass windows.

Since 1992, the palace district, together with Goslar's Old Town and the Rammelsberg Mine have been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Henry Moore's sculpture, Goslar Warrior 1973–1974 has stood in the palace gardens since 1975. It was named for the town after Moore received Goslar's Goslarer Kaiserring art prize in 1975.^[4] On warmer summer evenings the large meadow around the two statues in front of the Imperial Palace used to be a popular meeting place for all kinds of people. Today there is a ban on alcohol and assembly anywhere in the palace grounds.