Many generations have built Hildesheim Cathedral, and the architecture and furnishings bear witness to this eventful history. The different building elements point to this, recognisable by the juxtaposition of Romanesque and Gothic building forms and the idiosyncratic counterpoint of the Baroque dome above the crossing. As we see them today, they were only rebuilt in the course of the reconstruction of the cathedral, which was badly hit by bombs in the final days of the Second World War. However, their design language is based on the historical building. At least in its external appearance, it should be restored as faithfully as possible in order to bear witness to the unbroken vitality of the episcopal see and its place of foundation for more than 1000 years.
The diocese began in the cathedral courtyard
The fact that the origins of the diocese of Hildesheim lie here was once again impressively confirmed by the building research carried out during the renovation of the cathedral complex. The Saxon burial ground that was uncovered under today's cathedral is apparently centred on a first, much smaller church building in the area of today's crypt, at the eastern apse of which the millennial rosebush drives its roots into the ground. Pious tradition sees it as the ‘tree’ on which a miracle of relics took place in the time of Louis the Pious.
The basic layout of today's cathedral is still largely determined by the Carolingian building that Bishop Altfrid (851-875) had erected over the first St Mary's Church.
The cathedral follows the course of the sun in its orientation. Its entrance in the east is marked by the apse, which is pierced by three large windows. Its vaulting characterises this building as a place of majesty, as the sun has been regarded as an image of Christ since the days of Constantine the Great. The bell tower in the west forms the antithesis. Like a bulwark, it separates the church from the darkness that falls at sunset. The tower above the crossing sets its own accent. In the old cathedral, it marked the place where the choir prayer ascended from here to heaven; today it rises as a canopy above the main altar, the heart of the episcopal church. The way there leads along the main axis through the entrance hall in front of the west tower. This old meeting place marks the liturgical boundary between the profane forecourt of the Episcopal Church and the sacred interior.
A rich pictorial programme adorns the Bernward door
The Bernward Door, which provides access to the interior, is only opened on special occasions. Its oversize and the fact that each of its two wings is cast in one piece of bronze characterise its outstanding significance. The door, donated by Bishop Bernward in 1015, is also characterised by a rich pictorial programme that makes this interface between outside and inside the subject of a catechesis on the history of salvation. Nothing should degrade the sacred place that lies behind this door. This is symbolised by the two door pullers, whose lion heads conjure up the image of two beasts standing guard with bared teeth. The archaic motif is integrated into the surrounding sequence of scenes in an evocative way.
On the left wing, it extends in descending order from the creation of Adam to the fratricide, on the right from the Annunciation to Mary to the appearance of the Risen Christ. In the centre, directly adjacent to the door pulls, we see Eve with Cain, her firstborn on her lap, and the Mother of God facing each other. In this confrontation between the ‘old’ and ‘new Eve’, the door itself is made the subject, as it is the unconditional acceptance of God's promise of salvation with which Mary has pushed open the door that seemed to be closed forever due to Eve's original sin. At the same time, this image is a subtle allusion to the patron saint of the cathedral.
The Marian character of the pictorial programme is echoed at the north-western side portal, one of the most frequented entrances to the cathedral. Here, the figures of Mary and the Archangel Gabriel, set in stone tabernacles, are arranged on either side of the entrance door and refer to the sacramental presence of Christ in the church space made accessible from there. Bernward himself is also depicted as the ‘doorkeeper’ in the immediate vicinity of the large bronze door of the west vestibule, together with the holy bishops Godehard and Epiphanius, the patron saints of St Mary's Cathedral.
Three sections divide the nave
The sequence of arcades in the central nave is rhythmised by intermediate pillars that divide the nave into three sections. The baptismal font, which was already located in the western part of the nave in the Middle Ages, forms the prelude. The most important function of the font is still that baptism is administered over it. At the same time, this world-famous work of art is a place of remembrance of the baptism common to all Christian denominations. And finally, the complex sequence of images with their Old and New Testament references to the salvific significance of baptism recognises the bronze font as the central place of the Easter liturgy, which has always been celebrated in a particularly festive manner in the mother church of the diocese.
The centre section of the room is dominated by the large wheel chandelier donated by Bishop Hezilo (1054-1079) for the cathedral, which was rebuilt after the catastrophic fire of 1046. The chandelier symbolises the heavenly Jerusalem.
The final accent in the central nave is the inkwell Madonna on the north-western crossing pillar. In its prominent position, it emphasises that the episcopal church is dedicated to the Mother of God.
© Monheim
The main altar corresponds with the Godehard shrine
The choir is also divided into three parts. The crossing, the place of choir prayer until 1945, has been the liturgical centre of the episcopal church with the main altar since 1960. The new main altar, designed by Ulrich Rückriem from three mighty blocks of stone as a reference to the Old Testament sacrificial altars, functions in block-like heaviness as the place of the sacrifice of the Mass. It corresponds with the Godehard shrine in the crypt as a memorial to the first bishop of Hildesheim, who was raised to the honour of the altars. The gilded inner sides of the altar refer to the saint's tomb underneath, which takes the place of a reliquary sepulchre. In remembrance of the services celebrated here for centuries, the wheel chandelier donated for this room by Bishop Thietmar (1038-1044) is now once again hung in the choir square behind the main altar.
The old sacrament niche in the north wall with its baroque grille has also been restored. The place of the old high altar is now taken by the Easter candlestick, probably donated by Bishop Hezilo, which, due to its monumental size and misjudging its original purpose, was long thought to be the pillar of the Saxon gods (Irmensul) overthrown by Charlemagne. At its new location, the illuminated column, which has since been crowned by a figure of the Virgin Mary, now serves to support a crystal cross. The artist couple Ulla and Martin Kaufmann from Hildesheim created it from rock crystal, thus taking up the idea of the gemstone-studded radiant cross, which has been a sign of Christ's return since time immemorial. In front of the light-flooded round of the apse, which surrounds the choir, the cross on the ‘Irmen's Column’ thus becomes the cathedral's central symbol of salvation.
The lower church is the central sanctuary
The transepts of the cathedral are designed as a pilgrimage route. The Gothic exterior façade of the north transept emphasises this particularly vividly by presenting the main patron saints to those entering: The Mother of God, St Epiphanius and St Godehard. The latter also holds in his right hand the oldest shrine of the cathedral, the Carolingian reliquary, which is said to have given rise to the foundation of the episcopal church on the cathedral hill. Passing the chapel of all the cathedral patrons, the path then leads into the northern transept with the Chapel of St Cecilia. The shrine of St Epiphanius is located in the wall niche above this chapel. Via the places of worship in the crypt, on whose altar of the Virgin Mary the founding reliquary was also placed until the High Middle Ages, you reach the south transept, where the Christ Column stands today. The head reliquary of St Bernward can be seen in the immediate vicinity.
In conjunction with the crypt, the transept can now be perceived anew as a predetermined place for the veneration of saints following the reorganisation that has now been completed. The lower church is the central shrine. The newly erected altar of the Virgin Mary is the oldest altar site in the diocese. Its origins date back to the early 9th century. To emphasise this, the Carolingian silver capsule of the founding reliquary is embedded in the altar stipes. Behind the altar, the old image of the Mother of God, presumably donated to the crypt by Bishop Gerhard (1365-1398), is once again displayed, and the roots of the thousand-year-old rosebush can once again be seen through the uncovered window opening. The triad of holy bishops venerated in the cathedral has its centre in the western part of the crypt.
Chapels as places of remembrance
At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, the cathedral underwent further radical changes. The two rows of chapels in the interior were added not only to accommodate an increased number of worshippers, but also to provide space for individual devotion. It was possible to build on this in different ways.
While the row of chapels on the north side has been given a more liturgical orientation, the chapels on the south side, which have retained their basic structure, are designed as places of remembrance. In the Chapel of St Barbara, the first chapel from the west, is the last almost completely preserved altar of the old baroque cathedral furnishings, which were almost completely destroyed in 1945. The altarpiece shows Bishop Jobst Edmund von Brabeck (1688-1702) kneeling at the foot of the cathedral patron saint. The memorial to the founder buried in front of this altar thus also provides an opportunity to commemorate the many dead who have found their final resting place in the cathedral over the centuries.
In the adjoining chapel of St Anastasius and St Vincentius, the two alabaster figures of the prophet Isaiah and the apostle Philip, created by Johann Friedrich Ziesenis (1715-1785) for the destroyed altar of the old baptistery, are displayed. They both refer to the sacrament of baptism, the prophet through the ‘baptism of blood’ of his martyrdom, the apostle through the baptism of the Ethiopian converted by Philip as recorded by Luke. Following on from this sacramental connotation, the cathedral's baroque oil vessels will be permanently placed between the two saints in future.
The visual connection then extends from the baptismal font in the nave to the opposite confession chapel, the place of the sacrament of penance, thus accentuating the contextual connection. In the Chapel of St Elisabeth, the third chapel seen from the west, the large painting of the Adoration of the Magi, modelled on a work by Peter Paul Rubens, keeps alive the memory of the centuries-long veneration of this saint in the cathedral.
The eastern end of the row of chapels is the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception. The altarpiece by Paul Egell (1691-1752), most of which has been preserved, was donated by the Hildesheim cathedral provost and auxiliary bishop Ernst Friedrich Freiherr von Twickel (+1734), who is also buried in this chapel. The ensemble of figures, one of the greatest artistic realisations of this theme in European art of the 18th century, depicts Mary being taken up into heaven between her parents, Joachim and Anna. This depiction of the Immaculata is the only one in the cathedral that refers directly to the patronal feast on 15 August.