Paderborn in a small town on the way to Hanover. It’s known for its beautiful Catholic cathedral – The High Cathedral of St Mary, St Liborious and St Kilian belonging to the archdiocese of Paderborn. The church is built in the late Romanesque and Gothic styles and is at the centre of the town above some springs, called the Pader Springs.. and well, you gotta stop for lunch somewhere! So why not choose a town with a famous medeival cathedral!
The cathedral is dedicated to three saints – namely, the Vigin Mary, St Kilian and St Liborious of Le Mans. Liborious is also the first patron of the city and his bones were brought from France to Paderborn in 836 by Emperor Louis the Pious – as part of what was a traditional relic dispersion. Relics were sent to various regional diocese to provide places/things for parishioners to pay homage and tribute to, and to make pilgrimages to see. I find it rather interesting that the remains of revered saints and religious personages were taken and scattered all over the countryside; the only other group of people who had their remains separated and sent to the four corners of any given kingdom in the medieval period were traitors and high criminals. Figure that one out!
Paradise Portal, done in the Romanesque style, c.1160.
The Paradise vestibule and Paradise portal are in the southern extension of the church. Built in the second half of the 12thC it is now twice as large today as it was in the 1860s. It has been used as a resting space for pilgrims on their way to the Santiago de Compostela, and there are many similar porches on French churches and cathedrals at other pilgrimage churches en route to Santiago.
The Cathedral was rebuilt from the 11thC, along with the Ottonian Imperal place in the region with large vaulted ceilings. The vaults of the Paderborn Cathedral are surprisingly uniform, given its window configuration doesn’t appear to possess the same symmetry… there’s some architectural trickery going on here.
Sadly, there wasn’t a lot of information around the church to explain objects to visitors. But on the other hand, it’s possibly because it’s more of a working cathedral and not a heavily toursited area, so that’s a bonus for the locals.
A decidedly non-medieval looking pulpit. Fair guess to say it was a later addition.
A Bishop Badurad had a crypt built into Paderborn Cathedral, which dates back the 1100AD. Although it was redesigned in the 13thC it remains on of the largest hall crypts in Germany – which is surprising because it doesn’t seem overly large compared to the sorts of crypts you see in France and Italy?
Under the altar of the crypt is an ebony shrine containing the relics of Saint Liborious (in the small box above – we couldn’t access that area).
On the opposite side of the crypt is an anteroom to the Bishop’s Crypt, which is decorated with mosaics from 1935. Though modern, the mosaics create a beautiful space around a gravestone which contains the replics of a Bishop Meinwerk; past the anteroom is the actual crypt of all the Paderborn Bishops. It is this unusually mosaic’d crypt that attracts most visitors to Paderbornerdom. It is actually quite beautiful, and has a decidedly art deco style to it.
At the centre of the Bishops’ Crypt is a Pieta, which is flanked left and right with two enormous bronze plates listing all the names of the Paderborn bishops right up to the 20thC. The bronze plates start with names of Bishops all the way back to the 900s, and the bones of all the previous bishops rest in a collective grave in the floor. It’s incredible to see this historical record going so far back.
The Chapel of St Joseph dates to the 14thC and was initially dedicated to the Three Magi.
The town of Paderborn is really quite cute and very sleepy. The centre of the Marktplaz has a fountain called the Neptunebrunnen Fountain, reminiscent of the Neptune fountain in the centre of Gdańsk. This fountain was originally built in 1730 by Johann Theordor Axer and reconstructed in 1979 by Joseph Rokis.
I love the details in medieval buildings surrounding the Marktplaz… very cool medieval rainbow mosaic.
Onward to Hanover…
Checked into our hotel and immediately went looking for a beer hall… we had decided to skip lunch as we spent too much time in the Cathedral, which put us on the hunt for Hanover’s best currywurst and jagerschnitzel!
Angus was very happy with his wash – my schnitzel was nice, the mushroom sauce was good, but not Heidelberg good… I am going to get mightily sick of the piles of fried potato that comes with every meal (I don’t eat them). Thankfully, we are here smack dab in the middle of erdbereen season – so there’s fresh strawberries everywhere for very cheap! They tasted even better than they looked if that is possible.
