Essen Cathedral Treasure

Essen Cathedral Treasury next to the Minster Church (2013)

Reliquary containers from abandoned altars in the east choir in Essen Minster, dated 1054

This Burgundian agraffe is a gem of the cathedral treasure . A total of 16 of these rare pieces of jewelery from the 14th century belong to the cathedral treasure

The Essen Cathedral Treasury is one of the most important collections of church works of art in Germany. A large number of treasures are open to the public in the cathedral treasury next to the minster church . However, the cathedral chapter does not see the treasury as a museum, but as the place where liturgical equipment and objects are kept, which, insofar as they are conservationally justifiable, are still used in worship today.

history

The cathedral treasure emerged from the treasure of the former women's monastery in Essen , which after the monastery was secularized in 1803 became the property of the parish of St. Johann Baptist belonging to the monastery .

During the Ruhr uprising in 1920, the entire monastery treasure was secretly relocated to Hildesheim , from where it was returned in 1925.

During the Second World War , the cathedral treasure was first brought to Warstein , then to the Albrechtsburg in Meißen and from there to Siegen , where it was stored in the Hainer tunnel to protect it from air raids - as was the Aachen and Trier cathedral treasures . After the end of the war he was found there by American troops and taken to the State Museum in Marburg , and later to a collection point for outsourced works of art in Dyck Castle near Rheydt . From April to October 1949, the Essen Cathedral Treasure was exhibited in Brussels and Amsterdam and then brought back to Essen.

In 1953 the cathedral treasure was shown in an exhibition in the Villa Hügel . Since 1957, the treasure has been the property of the then newly founded diocese of Essen . The cathedral treasury was first made fully accessible to the public in 1958 at the request of the first Bishop of Essen, Franz Hengsbach . The first custodian of the cathedral treasury was cathedral capitular Leonhard Küppers .

Due to a structural expansion, the treasury had to be closed from September 15, 2008 to May 15, 2009. The cathedral treasure was shown from October 20, 2008 to February 8, 2009 under the motto Gold before Black as the opening exhibition of the Ruhr Museum in the former coal washing plant of the Zeche Zollverein . The new exhibition of the cathedral treasure, enlarged by 70 percent and improved in terms of museum education, opened on May 15, 2009.

Andrea Wegener has been the head of the Essen Cathedral Treasury since September 2017.

collection

Since only a few pieces of the monastery treasure, such as the golden shrine of St. Marsus , have been lost in the course of history and the Essen liber ordinarius has been preserved, in which the liturgical use of the objects was specified, the collection in its entirety is exemplary. In addition, the Essen Cathedral Treasury contains several art-historically significant works, particularly from the Ottonian era; in detail these are:

• four presentation crosses from the Ottonian period: the Otto Mathilden Cross , the cross with the large sinkholes , the Theophanu Cross and the Mathilden Cross
• a golden crown, which may be Otto III's children's crown . is that is but mostly dated to the 11th century and the oldest surviving crown of lilies is ever
• the ceremonial sword of the abbesses from the Ottonian times in a gold scabbard
• the Theophanu Gospels , a manuscript of the 11th century, with a gold-driven cover, in the middle of which a carved ivory panel is
• a cross nail reliquary , also donated by Theophanu
• the Golden Madonna , the oldest sculptural figure of the Virgin Mary in occidental art (kept in the Minster Church)
• a two meter high, seven-armed bronze chandelier from the Ottonian period (kept in the minster church)

In addition to the Ottonian works of art, the cathedral treasure also includes valuable objects from later eras, such as the Marsus bust and 16 Burgundian agraffes from the 14th century; it is the world's largest single collection of such agraffes. The cathedral treasury also includes several manuscripts, including the Carolingian Gospels , also known as the Altfrid Gospels ( signature Hs. 1 ), the Essen Liber Ordinarius ( Hs. 19 ) and the Essen Nekrolog ( Hs. 20 ) , which are linguistically and artistically important .

In the Cathedral Treasury also a showcase with loans from the Diocesan Museum, namely is Bishop rods , miters , Pektoralien and Bishop rings of deceased bishops of the diocese of Essen .

literature

• Georg Humann : The works of art of the cathedral church to eat. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1904.
• Heinz Köhn: The Essen Minster Treasure. An introduction , Essen 1953.
• Victor H. Elbern : The Minster Treasure of Essen. Cooling, Mönchengladbach 1959.
• Leonhard Küppers , Paul Mikat : The Essen Minster Treasure. Fredebeul u. Koenen, Essen 1966.
• Alfred Pothmann : The Essen church treasure from the early days of the monastery history. In: Günter Berghaus (Hrsg.): Dominion, education and prayer. Foundation and beginnings of the Essen women's monastery. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2000, ISBN 3-88474-907-2 , pp. 135-153.
• Jan Gerchow : The treasure of the Essen women's monastery until the 15th century. On the history of the institution. In: Das Münster am Hellweg 56, 2003, pp. 79–110.
• Klaus Gereon Beuckers , Ulrich Knapp: Colored gold. The Ottonian crosses in the Essen Cathedral Treasury and their enamels. Cathedral Treasury Essen, Essen 2006, ISBN 3-00-020039-8 .
• Birgitta Falk , Thomas Schilp , Michael Schlagheck (eds.): ... how the gold shines in the eyes. Treasures from the Essen women's foundation (= Essen research on the women's foundation. Vol. 5). Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89861-786-4 .
• Birgitta Falk (Ed.): Gold before black. The Essen Cathedral Treasure at Zollverein. Catalog for the exhibition in the Ruhr Museum, Essen, October 20, 2008 to January 11, 2009. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8375-0050-9 .
• Birgitta Falk (ed.): The Essen Cathedral Treasure. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8375-0200-8 .
• Ina Germes-Dohmen: After renovation and expansion. The Essen Cathedral Treasure presents itself with a new concept and design. In: The Minster on Hellweg. Vol. 62, 2009, pp. 150-155.

Web links

Commons : Essen Cathedral Treasure  - Collection of Images

• Website of the Essen Cathedral Treasury
• Domschatz Essen on the website of the Association of Church Museums and Treasuries in German-speaking countries

Remarks

1. ^ Website of the Cathedral Treasury .
2. ↑ Lydia Konnegen: Hidden Treasures. The Essen minster treasure in times of the Ruhr conflict. In: Das Münster am Hellweg 58, 2005, pp. 67–81.
3. ↑ Museum Folkwang Essen shows works of art from churches, museums and private collections in Villa Hügel: Essener Münsterschatz; Tapestries from the Krupp Collection; Paintings, sculptures by old and new masters; from May 10 to September 30, 1953. Essen 1953.
4. ↑ Andreas Rossmann : In women's hands. Management of the Essen Cathedral Treasury . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of August 22, 2017, p. 9.
5. ↑ Birgitta Falk: The sixteen Franco-Burgundian agraffes in the Essen cathedral treasure. In: Birgitta Falk, Thomas Schilp, Michael Schlagheck (eds.): … How the gold shines in the eyes. Treasures from the Essen women's monastery. Pp. 215-241; Susanne Conrad: 16 agraffes from the Essen cathedral treasure. In: Yearbook of the Rhenish Preservation of Monuments. Vol. 42, 2011, pp. 240-243.
6. ↑ This only exists as a collection of modern art without its own exhibition space.

Coordinates: 51 ° 27 '20.6 "  N , 7 ° 0' 50.8"  E