Cathedral of Lübeck

The cathedral of Lübeck (Germany) is the oldest monument of the city. Indeed, its construction began since 1173 with Henri the Lion and was completed in 1247.

Since 1477, one can admire there a giant crucifix (17 meters) of the painter and German sculptor Bernt Notke. The high altar of Hans Memling was dismounted and is now exposed to the Saint-Annen museum. The cathedral suffered from the bombardments on the city in 1942, which caused the collapse of the vaults. Its restoration goes back only to 1960 and cost more than thirteen million Deutsche Mark (either approximately 6,5 million euro).

Air sight

Construction

The seat of évêché having been transferred in 1160 from Oldenbourg-of-Holstein to Lübeck, Henri the Lion ordered in 1173 the erection of this cathedral for the benefit of the diocese of Lübeck, directed by the Gerold bishop. The building, of Romance style in the beginning, was finished in 1230, but of 1266 to 1335 it was rebuilt in the Gothic style with collateral of the same height than the nave (either approximately 20m).

During the night of the Sunday of Easter (28- March 29th) 1942, an air raid destroyed 20% of the downtown area. Pusieurs bombs exploded around the cathedral, causing the collapse of the Eastern vault of the chorus and destroying the furnace bridge which went back to 1696. The fire of the museum of évêché adjacent was propagated with the Charpente cathedral, so that Sunday about midday the turns crumbled. The historical Orgue built by Arp Schnitger disappeared in the flames. One however managed to save most of interior decorations, in particular the crucifix and all the medieval Polyptyque S. A new collapse of the wall-pinion of the northern Transept, in 1946, almost entirely destroyed the hall.

Rebuilding

The rebuilding of the cathedral was spread out over several decades, because the authorities had given the priority to the rebuilding of the Marienkirche: work was échevèrent only in 1982.

In 2002, it was considered at the time of a symposium organized by the Lübeck Academy off Music to reconstitute the organ of Arp Schnitger: although one has the necessary informations to conclude it, no decision was made to date; on its side the university of Gothenburg, in Sweden, had been put at work within the framework of a research program since the middle of the years 1990: the reconstituted instrument, equipped with a frontispiece pointing out the original organ, was installed in 2001 in an old church given up since the end of the year 1890, in Örgryte. This church is now in the course of refitting in concert hall.

A curious fact is that the cathedral, high, 105 m is less low than highest of the churches of the city: that is explained by the competition between the church and the Guilde S.

Ornamentation

The Crucifix high of 17 m, works of the goldsmith Bernt Notke, is a ordering of the bishop Albert II Krummendiek, and was drawn up in 1477. The Rinceau X of the Jubé were also carried out by Notke.

Since the denière war, the famous furnace bridge of Hans Memling joined the medieval collections of the Holy Musée Annen, but remarkable Polyptyque S took again their place in the cathedral.

The funerary Chapelle S of the southern wing are vestiges of the age Baroque due to the Flemish sculptor Thomas Quellinus.

Caption

A legend reports that with the VIIIe century, whereas Charlemagne drove out in Saxony, it was one day on the track of a stag of an unaccustomed size. He managed to encircle the animal at the price of a long continuation, but instead of killing it or to capture it, he rolled up a gold chain around the wood of the stag.

Four century later, while the Sell and the Saxons had converted with Christianity, Henri the Lion, the founder of Lübeck, drove out in its turn in the forests of the area. Pensive, this prince had deviated from his companions to think of the financing of the church which he wanted to build, because it missed the money. At this time, a stag of big size presented itself in front of him with a crucifix decorated with diamonds fixed on its wood. Henri saw a divine sign there: he cut down the animal and seized the cross; but hardly it had been seized of the object which the stag rectified and disappeared in the thickets. The young duke now had the money necessary to build the cathedral.

The cathedral today

The cathedral of Lübeck is today one of the three episcopal cathedrals of the evangelic Église of the north of Elba. Since 2001, the bishop is Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter.

The congregation continues to hold a central position in the musical life of the city. The Festival of music of the the Schleswig-Holstein, urged during the long career of the Organist and cantor Uwe Röhl (1925-2005), continuous to be held in the cathedral.

References

Paul Brockhaus (Hrsg.): Vom Lübecker Dom , Lübeck 1958
Wolfgang Grusnick/Friedrich Zimmermann: Der Dom zu Lübeck , Verlag Langewiesche, Königstein a.T., 1996 ISBN 3-7845-0827-8
Matthias Riemer: Domus Dei - EIB Gott zu Hause. Raumkonzepte im Lübecker Dom - eine Annäherung. In: Das Gedächtnis der Hansestadt Lübeck: Festschrift für Antjekathrin Graßmann zum 65. Geburtstag . In Verbindung dem Verein für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde und dem Hansischen Geschichtsverein hrsg put. von Rolf Hammel-Kiesow und Michael Hundt. Lübeck: Schmidt-Römhild, 2005. ISBN 3-7950-5555-5

External bond

Site of the cathedral

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