Bremen Cathedral

About

Bremen Cathedral (German: Bremer Dom or St. Petri Dom zu Bremen), named after St. Peter, is a church situated in the market square in the center of Bremen. The cathedral belongs to the Bremian Evangelical Church, a member of the umbrella organization Evangelical Church in Germany. It is the previous cathedral of the former Roman Catholic Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. Since 1973, it is protected by the monument protection act.

In general, Bremen Cathedral is a medieval building. The oldest visible structures are the two crypts. The last parts built in romanesque style and in sandstone were the lower storeys of the western façade and the western towers. Since the late 1220s, vaults and walls were erected in bricks, partly hidden by sheets of sandstone. Only the outer wall of the southern row of chapels shows unhidden bricks. St Peter's is one of the largest historic brick structures in Europe, but it comprises too many stone structures to be subsumed to Brick Gothic. During the great restoration of 1888 to 1901, the western towers and most of the western façade were rebuilt relatively close to previous structures. The crossing tower was a new addition, using the medieval crossing tower of Worms Cathedral as an example. The roofs above the transepts and the northern aisle were redesigned.

The first church structure that can be verified on the site of St Peter's Cathedral in Bremen was a timber church on a high point overseeing the Weser River built by Saint Willehad, an early missionary to the Frisians. The church was built about 789 in conjunction with the creation of the Diocese of Bremen, with Willehad as the first bishop. Willehad died the same year.

Just three years later Saxons attacked and burned Bremen and its tiny timber cathedral. No trace of it remains. The see remained vacant for thirteen years until it was reestablished under Bishop Willerich in 805. St Peter's was built as the cathedral church of local sandstone in several stages by Bishop Willerich.

After the sack of Hamburg by the Danes in 845, Bremen became the seat of the combined Bremen and Hamburg Archdiocese under Archbishop Saint Ansgar who held the see from 848 to his death in 865. He was one of the most prominent missionaries to northern Europe and is credited with the beginnings of the conversion of the Danes and Swedes to Christianity. He was succeeded by Archbishop Rimbert.

It is believed that during Ansgar's time the cathedral had a central nave and two side aisles with a choir at each end of the nave, a typical Carolingian church form. There was a cathedral school and cloister.

Early in the tenure of Archbishop Adalbrand (1035–1043) the church was in the process of being rebuilt and enlarged, but in 1041 most of Bremen including the cathedral was destroyed by a terrible fire. The fire also destroyed much of the cathedral library. Bishop Adalbrand ordered the building rebuilt in 1042, but died before it could be completed.

Most of the rebuilding fell to Archbishop Adalbert (1043–1072). The cathedral was rebuilt as a pillared basilica with rounded Romanesque style arches and a flat timber ceiling. Two stubby, flat-topped towers were added to the west front. A crypt was built under the west part of the nave. The building plan was based on the cruciform shape of the cathedral at Benevento in Campania, Italy which Adalbert was familiar with. He also brought craftsmen from Lombardy to make repairs and embellish the cathedral, much to the consternation of local builders and artists. Adalbert ignored the criticism and forced his vision for the cathedral. On Adalbert's orders parts of the fortification of the cathedral district [ de ] (not the unwalled market town beside) were torn down to provide low-cost stone for the cathedral. Adalbert's short-sightedness resulted in Saxons sacking the city and the cathedral in 1064. Under Adalbert's rule the oldest visible part of today's cathedral was built, the western crypt.

Under his successor, Liemar (1072–1102), the eastern crypt was built and the cathedral reached almost present-day extent on the ground.

In 1104, the archdiocese lost most of its administrative power to the newly established archbishopric of Lund.

Dominant structures of the present building

During the rule Prince-Archbishop Gerhard II (1219–1258), the conditions for works on the cathedral improved: On Christmas 1223 the rivalry of Bremen and Hamburg was finished by a papal decision, Bremen became the only see of the archbishopric. In March 1224, another papal decree authorized an indulgence campaign to subsidize a "repair" of the cathedral. The construction of the lower storeys of the western façade and towers – in pure romanesque style – may have begun before the decree and even before the onset of Gerhard's rule.

Between the towers, a rose window was added, it has already been depicted in Bremen's first municipal seal, cut in 1230. Than, successively and most of it under the same rule, at first the two westernmost bays of the nave were vaulted (still almost Romance style), then the aisles in very early Gothic architecture, then central nave, choir, crossing and transept in advanced early Gothic style. Differing from the Romance parts, the vaults and new walls were constructed in brick as were many other large ecclesiastic and public buildings in northern Europe.

Central nave and choir have double bays with six sections each. The pillars at their corners are supported by flying buttresses (since 1502–'22 only on the southern side). The pillars of the middling ribs, carrying only one fourth (or eighth) of the weight, have none, except of the choir, where they were added as late as in 1911.

The oldest vaults are above the main organ, in the west.

Southern aisle, vaulted before central nave, choir, crossing and transept

Northern aisle, repaired and raised to the height of the central nave in 1502 to 1522 (late gothic style)

Pulpit of 1638, southern wall of the central nave rather romance: arcade with round arches, no triforium

At Easter 1334 Prince-Archbishop Burchard Grelle claimed to have found the skulls of the Saints Cosmas and Damian. He "personally 'miraculously' retrieved the relics of the holy physicians Cosmas and Damian, which were allegedly immured and forgotten in the quire of Bremen Cathedral. In celebration of the retrieval Prince-Archbishop and cathedral chapter arranged a feast at Pentecost 1335, when the relics were translated from the wall to a more dignified place." (For the original quotation see the note) Grelle claimed the relics were those Archbishop Adaldag brought from Rome in 965. In about 1400 the cathedral master-builder Johann Hemeling commissioned a shrine for the relics, which has been accomplished until after 1420. The shrine from carved oak wood covered with gilt rolled silver is considered an important mediaeval gold work. In 1649 Bremen's Chapter, meanwhile Lutheran, sold the shrine with the alleged relics to Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria. It is now shown in the Jesuit church of St Michael in Munich.

Under Prince-Archbishop Johann Rode, officiating between 1497 and 1511, the basilica style church was further transformed into a German "High Gothic" style church with a new northern nave. Several chapels were added and even more ambitious plans were made for the church.