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cathedral in Münster, Germany
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Münster Cathedral or St.-Paulus-Dom is the cathedral church of the Catholic Diocese of Münster in Germany, and is dedicated to Saint Paul. It is counted among the most significant church buildings in Münster and, along with the City Hall, is one of the symbols of the city.
The cathedral stands in the heart of the city, on a small hill called Horsteberg, which is encircled by the Roggenmarkt, Prinzipalmarkt and Rothenburg streets and by the Münstersche Aa river. This area, which also contains the Domplatz and surrounding buildings, was the old Domburg. Today the cathedral is the parish church for this area. West of the cathedral lies the bishop's palace and part of the old curia complex along with the current cathedral chapter.
The cathedral had two predecessors. The first cathedral (called the Ludgerus Dom, 805–1377) stood to the north of the current cathedral; the second cathedral was built in the tenth or eleventh century and was demolished during the construction of the third and current cathedral between 1225 and 1264. The imposing westwerk with its nearly identical towers was built as part of the second cathedral around 1192 and was incorporated into the current building. As a result, the cathedral is a mixture of styles, combining the Romanesque westwerk, old choir, and west towers with the Gothic nave, transepts, high choir and ring of chapels.
Each of the cathedral buildings served as the cathedral church of the Diocese of Münster, but each also had additional functions, at least at times. The original Carolingian cathedral was also the collegiate church for a monastery founded by Liudger, with the monks living under the rule of Chrodegang. Each cathedral served as a parish church, originally for the whole of Münster. As a result of the foundation of further parish churches, the parish district of the cathedral was reduced to the Old Domburg and Domimmunität in 1090. In the first half of the thirteenth century, the Church of St Jacobi was built on the Domplatz. With the completion of this church, the cathedral, which was then under construction, lost its function as a parish church entirely. Since the demolition of St Jacobi in 1812, the cathedral regained its role as the parish church for the Old Domburg and Domimmunität.
The cathedral contains the tomb of former Bishop of Münster Clemens August Graf von Galen, who became a cardinal shortly before his death in 1946 and was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.
The current St. Paulus Dom is, in fact, the third cathedral of the diocese of Münster. It was built between 1225 and 1264 and was preceded first by a Carolingian cathedral and second by an Ottonian cathedral.
An overview of the three cathedral buildings follows:
The first cathedral was created after the appointment of Liudger as Bishop of Münster in 805. It is therefore known as the Dom des heiligen Liudger or Ludgerus Dom.
It was long assumed that the first cathedral was a smaller church, especially because of the history of the foundation by Tibus. Only in 1904 did Savel suggest that the original cathedral was a three-naved basilica. He calculated its width using the northern stairs of the Domplatz and came to a figure of around 20 metres.
Further understanding was brought by the 1936 excavations by Wieschebrink, the director of the diocesan museum. These revealed that the first cathedral stood largely on the site of the later cloisters and Domherrenfriedhof. From the remains of the foundations, it was possible to conclude that the northern side aisle was about 8.3 meters wide, including the outer walls and foundations of the buttresses. Assuming that the nave was double the width of the side aisle (as usual in early medieval church buildings), the first cathedral would have been 27.6 metres wide in total. Based on the excavations, the length is estimated to have been 31.2 metres.
In the northwestern corner of the building, Wieschebrink found additional foundations of a rectangular wall, which were 2 metres thick – considerably thicker than the rest of the walls. From these remains he concluded that there had been a square tower with 8.3-metre-long (27 ft) edges.
The Ludgerus-Dom stood north of the current cathedral, roughly where the cloisters, Domherrenfriedhof, Marienkapelle and sacristry are located today. It was only demolished in the fourteenth century, well after the completion of the third cathedral. It, therefore, outlived the second, Ottonian cathedral entirely.
Until its demolition, the Ludgerus Dom remained largely unaltered. After the consecration of the second cathedral, it was left unused for almost a hundred years. At this time, part of the southwestern corner was demolished for the construction of a chapel, at the order of Bishop Dodo. Only with the foundation of the Collegiate Stift of the Old Dom by Bishop Burchard did the Ludgerus Dom regain a function: the chapter used it as a choir.
On 18 August 1377, Bishop Floris van Wevelinkhoven, the two churches side-by-side blocked the light and ordered the demolition of the Ludgerus Dom. After its demolition, the so-called "Alte Dom" was erected northwest of the original cathedral. This building replaced the Ludgerus Dom as the choir of the chapter.
The second cathedral was built immediately to the south of the first one. It was located on the site of the third and current cathedral.
The date of the second cathedral's construction is not certain.
Art historian Max Geisberg (1875–1943) argued that the second cathedral was built during the reign of Bishop Dodo between 967 and 993. This position was supported by the fact that other important cathedral buildings had a west transept already in the 10th and early 11th centuries. This transept was then reused in the construction of the third and current cathedral. In view of this presumed construction under the Ottonian dynasty, the second cathedral is referred to as the Ottonian cathedral.
The diocese of Münster assumed that the second cathedral was built in the second half of the eleventh century, in response to a fire in the first cathedral which apparently occurred in 1071. The Überwasserkirche only a few hundred metres away was similarly burnt down in the same fire. According to the diocese, the second cathedral was built between 1071 and 1090. The information of the diocese does not necessarily contradict Geisberg's conclusion since the diocese's claim is based on documentary information for the consecration of the second cathedral in 1090, which could have also occurred after a rebuild resulting from the fire.
The Ottonian cathedral was mostly demolished to build the third cathedral; today only fragments of the south wall of the side nave of the Ottonianbasilica survive.
The masonry of the western transept was also incorporated into the new building. To this day a large part of the west wall of the Ottonian transept survives (with the exception of the central portion, where the Old Choir was built around 1190), as well as parts of the south wall (which was incorporated into the northern interior wall of the "narthex"), much of the north wall and parts of the walls of the upper story on the east side.
No plans or depictions of the second cathedral survive from which the appearance of the second cathedral could be reconstructed. Since the modern "third" cathedral is located on the same spot as the second cathedral, excavations cannot be undertaken to determine its dimensions or appearance. Based on the surviving remnants of the walls it is only possible to determine the measurements of the Ottonian cathedral's western transept (c. 36.6 m from north to south and 12.4 m from east to west), the interior width of the side-aisle (c.6 m) and nave (c. 12 m), as well as the thickness of the exterior walls of the side-aisle (c.1 m) and the walls between the side-aisles and the nave (c.1.5 m). In total, therefore, the second cathedral appears to have been about 30 m wide.
The numbers and letters in brackets in the following section refer to the ground plan below.
In 1192, at the order of Bishop Hermann II von Katzenelnbogen (and at his own expense) a new westwerk was added to the (Ottonian) cathedral. This consisted of the Old Choir (B), located in the current western apse, flanked by two towers (A and C) in the Romanesque style.
This westwerk was integrated into the third cathedral and mostly survives today.
The foundation stone for the third and current St Paulus Dom was laid in 1225 by Bishop Dietrich III. von Isenberg. Unlike the two previous construction processes, the builder was not the bishop but the Chapter of the New Cathedral (Kapitel des Neuen Doms), which had clearly gained influence in the meantime.
In 1264, after nearly forty years of construction, St Paulus Dom was completed and on 30 September 1264 it was consecrated by Bishop Gerhard von der Mark.
It consists of a domed basilica with double transepts in the Gothic style. The cathedral is 108.95 metres long. The western transept is 52.85 metres wide, including the narthex (40.53 metres wide without it). The nave (G), with two side-aisles (H and I) between the two transepts, has a width of 28.3 metres. The eastern transept is 43.4 metres wide. Most of the earlier structure was torn down to make way for the present building, but some parts were reused. Among these are the westwerk, parts of the western transept (D and E), and parts of the wall of the southern side-aisle (I). As a result, the building is a mixture of the Romanesque and Gothic styles.
In 1377 the first cathedral was demolished and the so-called Alte Dom or Old Cathedral (e) was built, as a replacement for the first cathedral, which had been used as a choir by the chapter of the Old (Ludgerus) cathedral. Like the modern cathedral, the Alte Dom was built in the gothic style.
In 1390, the Marienkapelle (W), Annenkapelle (Y) and Elisabethkapelle (Z) were built – the latter two were incorporated into the new sacristry in 1885. Between 1390 and 1395, the cloisters (U) were built. In the process, part of the Alte Dom built shortly beforehand must have been demolished and moved to the west. Thereafter the Alte Dom was flanked by the west transept and the western end of the cloisters until its demolition in 1875.
Around 1516 the (formerly High Gothic) west portal (2) was expanded and redone in the Late Gothic style.
During the Anabaptist rule of Münster in 1534 and 1535, the cathedral was not spared from destruction at the hands of the Anabaptists. In the iconoclasm of 1534, numerous images and figures were destroyed, including those by Heinrich Brabender, as well as the original astronomical clock which dated from 1408 (since it was decorated with biblical images).
After the end of Anabaptist rule, the interior of the cathedral was renovated, and the chapter hall (T) was built. Heinrich Brabender's son Johann Brabender made new sculptures to replace those that had been destroyed. Ludger und Hermann tom Ring, two important Westphalian painters, repainted the cathedral. Between 1540 and 1542, the extant astronomical clock was installed. The second rood screen, the Apostelgang, followed between 1542 and 1549 – it was demolished in 1870.
In the 16th century, the main entrance hall of the cathedral, the "narthex" (F), and the southern extension of the east transept (M) were built, partially expanded and decorated with sculpture; towards the end of the 16th century an armaria was added to the ambulatory, the current Kreuzkapelle (R).
In 1663, Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen had three chapels (O, P and Q) built onto the ambulatory, south of the armaria. These chapels, called the Von Galenschen Kapellen after him, mimic the shape of the armaria. In 1697, the Vicars' sacristry (J) was built between the northern part of the east transept (the so-called Stephanuschor, K) and the northern side-aisle. After the construction of the sacristry (X) in 1885, the cathedral treasury was built under the Vicars' sacristry. Today the Sakramentskapelle is located here.
A new sacristry (X, on the "Plan of the Cathedral today") was built between the Marienkapelle (W) and the Chapter Hall (T) in 1885. For this new building, it was necessary to remove St.-Anna / Margareten-Kapelle (Y) which neighboured it to the south, the St.-Elisabeth-Kapelle (Z) which was between that chapel and the chapter hall and the passageway connecting the cloisters to the east side of the cathedral.
In the Second World War, the cathedral was severely damaged by bombing. The collapse of the vaults and walls led to the destruction of the wall and ceiling decoration created by Hermann tom Ring in the middle of the 16th century and the west portal from the first half of the 16th century (2). The treasury was removed from the cathedral during the war and remained unscathed.
Between 1946 and 1956, the cathedral was rebuilt. With the exception of the paintings mentioned above and the west portal, the cathedral was reconstructed according to its original appearance. Thus, the altars and epitaphs were returned to their original places.
In 1955 and 1956, the high choir (N), the altar room (L) and the east transept were reorganised liturgically according to the plans of Emil Steffann. The Baroque high altar which was originally located in the high choir was relocated to the west wall of the Old Choir (Westchoir, B). The cathedra is also located in the high choir in the same location. The main altar (Volksaltar, people's altar) was placed in the middle of the crossing (L), with the pews arranged around it on three sides.
In 1981, the new cathedral treasury was opened. It bordered on the northern edge of the cloisters and contained the cathedral treasury as well as artistic and cultural items from throughout the diocese' history.
Between 1985 and 1990, the windows of the sidewalls of the ambulatory (S) and the surrounding ring of chapels (O, P, Q and R) were restored. These windows consisted of a cycle of 17 glass windows made by glass artist Georg Meistermann. The windows are decorated with abstract-geometric colour surfaces and symbolic Biblical motifs.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Münster Cathedral”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.