Worms Cathedral of St. Peter (Wormser Dom or Dom St. Peter zu Worms) is considered one of the most outstanding monuments of Romanesque architecture in Germany and is one of the three large Romanesque imperial cathedrals on the Rhine – in Speyer, Worms and Mainz.
Dispute between two queens
“Brunhild wept, and the first, in front of her, entered Kriemhild’s cathedral with her retinue,” this scene, one of the key ones in the Nibelungenlied, is played out just on the steps of the ancient Worms Cathedral. The temple is mentioned almost twenty times in the world-famous German epic, but the Nibelungenlied is far from the only reason to get to know it in more detail.
Scene
The legend was written down by an unknown author in the 12th-13th centuries. True or false, the fatal dispute between the two queens took place, as he tells us, near this entrance to the cathedral. A bronze tablet reminds of their meeting here.
Friedrich Barbarossa
Above the entrance is a sculpture of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1122-1190). Below it is a quotation from a charter of special privileges and freedoms that he granted to the inhabitants of Worms in 1184. Almost thirty years earlier, his wife Beatrice I of Burgundy (1148-1184) had been anointed and crowned here in the cathedral. Barbarossa and this emperor’s son Henry VI considered Worms their capital north of the Alps.
Emperors and Reichstags
Barbarossa often visited Worms and stayed here for a long time. It is possible that the emperor was personally present at the consecration of the cathedral in May 1181. We also note that Charlemagne (742-814) used this city as his winter residence. In 783, his fourth wedding was celebrated here. The history of Worms also includes eight Reichstags and even the election of Pope Leo IX in 1049.
From Romans to Franks
Worms is one of the oldest German cities. The first Celtic settlement appeared here on a hill in the middle of the second millennium BC. The Roman military garrison was founded at the beginning of the first century. Around 450, the ancient Romans finally left these places. A few decades later, Worms and its environs came under the control of the Franks.
First Christians
The basilica, located in the center of the abandoned Roman forum, was adapted here as the first Christian church. During the royal dynasties of the Merovingians (V-VIII centuries) and Carolingians (VIII-X centuries), the temple was rebuilt and rebuilt several times. Reliable information about the first bishop dates back to 614, but there is reason to believe that he had a predecessor in Worms as early as the 4th century.
A thousand year history
The construction of a large Romanesque cathedral was started in 1005, that is, somewhat earlier than historians thought until recently. It took place in several stages and not without incident, but it was consecrated several times. During its thousand-year history, the temple was subjected to significant destruction during wars, but it was painstakingly restored. The lost decoration was replaced with a new one – according to the fashion of the era.
Burchard Cathedral
The first early Romanesque church in the form of a three-nave basilica with a flat ceiling, founded at the beginning of the 11th century under Bishop Burchard I, was consecrated in Worms in 1018 in the presence of Emperor Henry II. Two years later, its western part collapsed, which was then rebuilt. From the so-called Burchard Cathedral, only fragments of the socle – the towers and the eastern altar part – have survived to this day.
Salic dynasty
As follows from the biography of Bishop Burchard I, in his time the cathedral was richly decorated, the columns and capitals were covered with gilding, and the floor was lined with marble and sandstone. Representatives of the Salic dynasty, the ancestors and relatives of Emperor Conrad II (990-1039), were buried in the temple. In this part of Franconia were their ancestral possessions. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new crypt was built for the sarcophagi in the cathedral.
Worms concordat
An important event took place in this period in the history of the cathedral, which went down in history under the name of the Concordat of Worms. On September 23, 1122, a compromise agreement was signed here between Pope Calixte II and Emperor Henry V. The Concordat of Worms ended a long-term struggle for investiture, that is, the right to appoint bishops and abbots, and, by and large, for the supremacy of power in the empire.
First stage
The construction of the cathedral in its current form began in 1130, a few years before the first representative of the Hohenstaufen dynasty came to power in the Holy Roman Empire. This late Romanesque temple was erected on the foundation of the previous building – the early Romanesque Burchard Cathedral, which was gradually dismantled. It took a decade and a half to complete the eastern part with the choir, transverse nave and towers.
On the threshold of gothic
The vaulted central and side aisles, which took another ten years to complete, were taken up after a break in 1160. Then, also in ten years, the western façade was built, with round rose windows foreshadowing the Gothic era. This temple, as we have already noted, was consecrated during the reign of Emperor Barbarossa in 1181, although construction work continued for more than half a century.
South side
This side entrance is on the south side. The Nibelungen Theater Festival is held here every year in the open air. Previously, this place was a covered bypass gallery – the cloister (Kreuzgang). She was damaged during the War of the Palatinate Succession (1688-1697). In the 19th century, under the French, it was dismantled, and the stones were sold at auction.
Late Gothic bas-reliefs
The bypass gallery was built in the Romanesque period, but at the end of the 15th century it was renovated in the late Gothic style. Monumental Gothic bas-reliefs depicting scenes from the life of Jesus Christ have been preserved. Some are installed in the cathedral. Among them – the bas-relief “The Position of Christ in the tomb”, dating from about 1490. In the 15th century, the main portal, which has survived to this day, was also decorated in the Gothic style.
Worms school
The main Gothic portal of the cathedral is considered a masterpiece of stone carving. The tradition of this craft in Worms goes back to the Romanesque era. The local stonemasons were already famous throughout Europe and carried out orders even from France, not to mention German cities. Apprentices and apprentices who mastered the craft in Worms could easily find work almost everywhere.
Edict of Worms
At the end of the Gothic era in 1521, the Worms Reichstag took place in the city. Solemn services were held in the cathedral, and meetings were held in the city hall, which was later destroyed during one of the wars. At this Reichstag, Martin Luther refused to renounce his views, for which Emperor Charles V declared him a heretic. This event is considered the initial milestone of the Reformation.
Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque
In addition to the unique Gothic bas-reliefs installed in the side northern nave of this Romanesque church, its decoration contains an outstanding monument of another era of European art – the Baroque main altar, designed by the famous German architect Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753). This view of the central nave and the altar opens from the western side of the temple.
Nine Years’ War
The Neumann altar was made for the cathedral during its restoration after the War of the Palatinate Succession, during which the French Sun King Louis XIV ordered the destruction of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Speyer and Worms. His soldiers tried to blow up the Worms Cathedral, but he – unlike Heidelberg Castle – survived. However, the fire that broke out destroyed all of its interior decoration.
Bishopric of Worms
This church suffered once more from the French in Napoleonic times, when the soldiers of the revolutionary army, which seized these lands in 1792, set up a stable and warehouse in the temple. The ecclesiastical-territorial reforms and mediatization that followed soon led to the loss of the possessions of the Bishopric of Worms and its dissolution around 1800.
Minor Basilica
With the dissolution of the bishopric, Worms Cathedral lost its status as a cathedral church, becoming formally an ordinary parish church. In 1925, he received from Pope Pius XI the title of minor basilica (Basilica minor), given to historically significant and pilgrimage churches.
Recovery
The general reconstruction of the Worms Cathedral began in 1886 and lasted almost half a century. When restoring the destroyed parts of the temple, the builders used the preserved original stones, returning them to their original places. During the bombing in the spring of 1945, the building received significant external damage. The roof burned down, but the stone vaults did not collapse. The interior decoration was not damaged.
historicism
During the period of architectural historicism at the end of the 19th century, Worms Cathedral became one of the examples to follow in the construction of buildings in the Neo-Romanesque style. The most striking such project was this main synagogue, founded in Strasbourg in 1895 and destroyed during the Nazi era. In the work of the architect Ludwig Levy, the features of an ancient temple on the Rhine are well recognizable.
“Delightful Harmony”
This view of the ancient cathedral opens from the Jewish cemetery “Holy Sand” in Worms – the oldest in Europe. The philosopher Martin Buber, looking at this temple from here, admired its “delightful harmony”, noting a striking contrast with the “cemetery disorder”.