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The Golden Madonna of Essen is a gilded sculpture of the Virgin Mary and part of the treasury of the cathedral of Essen, a city in northwestern Germany.
It is both the oldest known sculpture of the Madonna and the oldest free-standing sculpture north of the Alps, and one of the few major works of art to survive from Ottonian times. To this day it remains an object of veneration and symbol of identity for the population of the Ruhr Area.
The sculpture has been known by its current name Golden Madonna only since the times of 19.th century romanticism. A liturgical manuscript dating from around 1370 simply describes it as dat gulden bild onser vrouwen (literally "the golden image of Our Lady"), the 1626 treasure inventory of the Essen convent lists Noch ein gross Marienbelt, sitzend uff einen sthuell mit lauteren golt uberzogen ("Yet another image of the Mary, sitting on a chair and coated with pure gold")