Architecturally, Marburg is famous both for its medieval churches and for its castle Marburger Schloss. In particular the Elisabethkirche—one of the two or three first purely Gothic churches north of the Alps outside of France—is an archetype of Gothic architecture in Germany. More important, however, is Marburg's status as an unspoilt, spire-dominated, castle-crowned Gothic/Renaissance city on a hill, intact because Marburg was isolated between 1600 and 1850.