Nordhausen Cross
The Nordhausen Cross is a Romanesque grand cross from Nordhausen , which has been kept in St. Cyriakus in Duderstadt since 1675 .
history
The Nordhausen cross was created as a reliquary for a cross relic that Emperor Otto III. around 1000 to the women's foundation in Nordhausen , a foundation of his great-grandmother Mathilde . The collegiate church, now under the patronage of the Holy Cross , has been a place of pilgrimage since then.
The Nordhäuser Kreuzstift, a canon monastery since 1220 and a Catholic island in the Lutheran imperial city since the Reformation , recovered only with difficulty from the consequences of the Thirty Years' War . Since the pilgrimage had also come to a standstill, the Nordhäuser Kreuz was sold in 1675 to Duderstadt, Electoral Mainz. On the occasion of the city's millennial anniversary in 1927, the Nordhausen Cathedral received a new cross relic with reliquary from the Berlin Apostolic Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli .
In Duderstadt, the Nordhäuser Cross is part of the church treasury of St. Cyriakus. It is still used today on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and on special occasions in the liturgy . For the Open Monument Day in 2008 it was on loan again in Nordhausen.
description
The Nordhausen Cross is a gem cross . The ends of the cross arms are widened in the manner of the Bernward cross . The wooden core is clad with gold sheet and symmetrically decorated with different colored gems . Filigree work surrounds the edge . The center and centerpiece is a circular, filigree recess in which the cross particles can be seen with an inscription under a cut rock crystal . The reverse, which was probably later redesigned, shows a crucified Christ in the center, the widened ends of the cross adorn the symbols of the four evangelists .
On the large bell of the Nordhausen Cathedral, cast in 1496, the cross is depicted as a carved bell with the medieval foot. The present silver base of the cross is a baroque addition.
literature
- Maria Kapp: The development of the inventory of Catholic churches in the lower area . In: Eichsfeld yearbook 13th year, Duderstadt 2005
- Paul Lauerwald: 90 years ago: The thousand-year-old “Nordhausen Cross” was given a counterpart. In: Eichsfelder Heimatzeitschrift. Vol. 61, No. 4, pages 97-99