St. Peter's Cathedral (Osnabrück)

Osnabrück Cathedral, with unequal west towers, on the right the Gothic south tower with the bells, on the left the Romanesque north tower

The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Peter (also Dom St. Petrus ) in Osnabrück is the cathedral of the Diocese of Osnabrück . The cathedral is a late Romanesque building and has shaped the city's silhouette since it was built. The main patron is Saint Peter .

Building history and equipment

Building

Central nave to the east: Romanesque windows and Gothic pointed arch vaults, two aisle bays per central aisle bay, between the crossing and the choir the triumphal cross from 1230

Fifteen years after the founding of the diocese by Charlemagne , the first church was built in 785. After being destroyed by the Normans in 890, it was restored.

The basilica of the 11th century only covered almost as much area as today's church . It had a cross-shaped floor plan and a multi-storey west building between two towers. The masonry in the lower part of the west facade has been preserved.

Around 1140 the west choir was expanded and given a groin vault . The crossing tower was probably built in the same century .

Central nave to the west: pointed arch of the vault in front of the round arch of the west building

From 1218 most parts of the nave were redesigned: first the transept was replaced, then the nave , which was completed in 1272. In its bound system , the central nave comprises three bays between the west building and crossing, the side aisles six each. Since then, the outer walls have had round-arched door and window openings, as is typical of the Romanesque , but all the vaults of the nave and transept are rib vaults and pointed arches , as is the case in Gothic . The arcades between the central nave and the side aisles and all of the belt arches also have pointed arches . It is noteworthy that the domed vaults in the nave of the nave are just as high as the pillars that support them. Due to the position of the battlements in the central nave vaults, their lateral thrust forces occur so deep that one could dare to do without buttresses .

A fire damage in 1254 required considerable repairs, the crossing was re-vaulted and the crossing pillars reinforced. The rectangular choir started afterwards was completed in 1270 and the new high altar was consecrated in 1277. The ambulatory and the Marienkapelle were added 150 years later, between 1434 and 1444.

The west facade had the large rose window between 1305 and 1350. The cathedral only got further Gothic windows in 1453.

Bishop Conrad III. had the whole building thoroughly renovated between 1454 and 1482. In 1490 the cross chapel was added. Until around 1500 the cathedral had two Romanesque west towers of equal size. From 1509 to 1544, the southern tower was replaced by the larger, present-day Gothic tower, which was provided with a high, pointed pyramid roof. In 1529 the crossing tower had to be stabilized again. The church received its current west portal two years later, after the baptistery there had been removed.

More than a century and a half apart, the Gothic spiers of the west towers were lost and replaced by Baroque domes , the northern one in 1606, the southern one in 1769–1771.

Alexander Behnes , who was responsible for maintaining the building from 1882 to 1910, carried out a number of modifications and additions.

During the Second World War , the cathedral roof with the baroque hoods and church extensions were destroyed by fire bombs . During the reconstruction, the towers were given low pyramid roofs, which emphasize the predominantly Romanesque character of the exterior of the church. The Osnabrück Wheel, which fell from the south tower due to the war on September 13, 1944, was set up to the side of the cathedral.

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  Rose window and late Gothic west portal

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  Merian 1647, Osnabrück von Osten, Cath. S. Petri (No. 13) with a high, pointed south tower and a hood on the north tower

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  Osnabrücker Rad from the Gothic south tower

Cloister

Cloister around the inner courtyard of the cathedral

The cloister connects to the nave in the south. It has three-part open pillar arcades . In the east wing there are cube capitals that correspond to those in the former west choir from 1140. The eastern part of the cloister is vaulted by a beltless barrel with stitch caps ; The south and west wings are groin vaulted on girdle and shield arches (second quarter of the 13th century). During the Second World War , the walled-up cloister facing the inner courtyard served as an air raid shelter .

Furnishing

High altar and choir stalls

High altar

The three-winged high altar from 1894–1905 is the work of the Osnabrück sculptor Heinrich Seling (1843–1912), as are the choir stalls.

Rood screen

Twelve statues by the Münster sculptor Heinrich Brabender remained from the cathedral's rood screen, which was torn down in 1664 , including Christ and apostles, as well as a smaller one by the founder, Duke Erich II of Sachsen-Lauenburg , Bishop of Münster. You are in the Diocesan Museum Osnabrück .

Triumphal cross

In addition to the baptismal font, the triumphal cross from around 1230 is the oldest piece of furniture. The triumphal cross has a corpus height of 3.85 meters. The head of the sculpture made of oak contains the relics of Saints Crispin , Crispinian , the secondary patrons of the cathedral church, as well as Saint Regina . Due to the annual rings in the oak, the sculpture can be dated to the end of the 12th century. Stylistically, the triumphal cross can be associated with bronze work from the Saxon-Westphalian border area, which results in a date in the first half of the 13th century. An indication of this traditional context is the formal conception of a gem cross . The original color version can hardly be reconstructed as a result of restorations, so no further indications of the dating can be obtained from this. While the figure of Christ appeared in strong contrasts due to an earlier restoration, a measure from 2003 placed emphasis on a softer and more natural coloring.

Baptismal font

Baptismal font from 1225

The bronze baptismal font from around 1225 bears the name of the founder "Wilbernus Petre" in a band of inscriptions. The founder's name in Latin form has been associated with Wilbrand von Oldenburg , the Bishop of Paderborn. At the same time, Wilbrand donated the precious bronze baptismal font of Hildesheim Cathedral , where he was provost of the cathedral from 1219-1225, before he was raised to the rank of Bishop of Paderborn in 1226. In the same year he also administered the Diocese of Osnabrück. The donor picture of the baptismal font in Hildesheim is given the Latin name "Wilbernus", therefore it is assumed that the baptismal font in Osnabrück was also donated by Wilbrand von Oldenburg.

Figures of apostles in the nave

There are eight figures of the apostles made of painted sandstone on the pillars in the central nave. The larger-than-life figures were originally placed in the ambulatory. They stand on consoles whose new inscriptions on the base bear the names of the apostles. Below the inscriptions are the coats of arms of the respective donors. On the console of Bartholomäus is the coat of arms of Lambert von Snetlage, who was cathedral dean from 1496 until his death in 1526. The sandstone figures come from the workshop of the sculptor Evert van Roden in Münster . In this workshop, the three surviving figures of the Margarethen Altar, which was destroyed in 1944, were created around 1520, as well as the stone figure of the Rosary Madonna made around 1525, which is one of the highest quality works by Evert van Roden.

pulpit

Pulpit, 1751

The pulpit in the second yoke of the central nave is one of the few surviving Rococo works . It consists of reddish colored artificial marble and was made in 1752 by Johann Andreas Vogel from Paderborn . The three bas-reliefs on the corpus show the calling of the apostle Peter , which is referred to in three ways in the New Testament . The sound cover of the pulpit carried a figure of Moses until 1868 , which today must be considered lost.

Bells

Up until the Second World War there was an important medieval bell in the south tower, which was destroyed during the war.

In the steel bell cage of the large south-west tower hangs a six-part cast steel bell, which is one of the best of the Bochum association . The bells were cast in the so-called experimental rib 7 (V7), a minor octave rib. The cast steel bell of Paderborn Cathedral , cast in 1951, sounds in the same disposition and is considered the first large bell in the then newly developed V7 rib.

No.	Surname	Casting year	Caster	Diameter (mm)	Weight (kg)	Nominal ( HT - 1 / 16 )
1	Maria Immaculate	1954	Bochum Association	2360	4828	f sharp 0 −2
2	Peter	1954	Bochum Association	1980	2804	a 0 −2
3	Crispinus and Crispinianus	1954	Bochum Association	1800	2113	h 0 −1
4th	Wiho	1954	Bochum Association	1600	1562	cis 1 ± 0
5	Gosbert	1954	Bochum Association	1350	933	e 1 ± 0
6th	Adolf of Tecklenburg	1954	Bochum Association	1180	623	f sharp 1 ± 0

Organs

Main organ under the Roman groin vault of the west building

The cathedral has two organs : the main organ in the westwork, and a small choir organ in the north transept. There is also another organ from Kreienbrink in the church music seminar (not open to the public) in the cathedral's cloister. It only serves as a practice instrument for the students in the seminar.

Main organ

The main organ with 53 registers was built in 2003 by the company Kuhn (Männedorf, Switzerland). It replaces an acoustically unfavorable predecessor organ in a niche in the south tower. The location in front of the rosette allows for good sound radiation, but the space between the gallery and the rosette was too small to be able to build a sufficiently large organ for this church. In order to keep the view of the round window clear, the existing gallery was torn down and a new one was built a little deeper, on which the organ now stands. The play area is located "in" the organ, in the middle above the organ back wall, facing the altar. A small tower with a further four registers ( cone store ), which is located on the 1st floor of the large southwest tower, is electrically coupled . It is swellable and has a sound absorption chamber.

Mutin-Cavaillé-Coll

The cathedral also has a rare organ: On the north wall of the transept there is an instrument from the Mutin - Cavaillé-Coll workshop as a choir organ , built in 1898. The organ has 12 registers with 3 additional transmissions to the pedal . All sounding pipes are swellable.

St. Peter's Cathedral at night

See also

• The lion poodle , a statue in front of the cathedral

literature

• Heinrich Feldwisch-Dentrup and Andreas Jung: Osnabrück - Dom and Domschatz ( The Blue Books ). Königstein im Taunus 1980.
• Uwe Lobbedey: The building history of the Osnabrück Cathedral . In: International Conference of Cathedral Builders, Minster Builders and Metalworkers Osnabrück, 8. – 12. October 2002 (daily documentation) . Osnabrück 2002, p. 33-37 .
• Uwe Lobbedey: The excavations in the Osnabrück Cathedral 1866-2003 . Rahden 2016. ISBN 978-3-89646-979-3 .

Web links

Commons : St. Peter's Cathedral (Osnabrück)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the cathedral
  • history
  • Timetable
  • Layout
• 4 cubic panoramas of the Cathedral of St. Peter Osnabrück

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Completion of the nave according to the Marienfelder Chronik , cited in Osnabrück, Dom und Domschatz by Heinrich Feldwisch-Drentrup and Andreas Jung, 1980
2. ^ Crossing and choir of the cathedral church St. Petrus zu Osnabrück (Osnabrück Cathedral). In: baufachinformation.de. Fraunhofer Information Center for Space and Building (IRB), archived from the original on March 17, 2007 ; Retrieved August 21, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Formerly bunkered cathedral cloister Osnabrück. In: www.luftschutzbunker-osnabrueck.de. Retrieved August 20, 2012 . 
4. ^ Georg Dehio - Handbook of German Art Monuments. Bremen, Lower Saxony, Munich 1992, p. 1043 f.
5. ↑ DI 26, City of Osnabrück, No. 99 (Sabine Wehking), in: www.inschriften.net, urn: nbn: de: 0238-di026g003k0009907
6. ↑ Recording of the loud bells (in the tower), (YouTube, November 28, 2009, 16:45, 09'49 ″) .
7. ↑ Kurt Kramer (ed.): The bell and its peal. History, technology and sound from the Middle Ages to the present . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1990, p. 50.
8. ↑ Claus Peter: The German bell landscapes. Westphalia . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1989, pp. 71–72, ISBN 3-422-06048-0 .
9. ^ Organ of the church music seminar on OrganIndex
10. ↑ organ details - Kuhn Organ Builders Ltd. Retrieved May 9, 2020 . 

Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 39.2 "  N , 8 ° 2 ′ 41"  E