One day in Germany Speyer Cathedral, World Famous Heritage

One day in Germany Speyer Cathedral, World Famous Heritage September 10, 2008

Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Belgium, Europe, Germany, Hotels, Netherlands, Rail Pass, Scotland, Sightseeing, Switzerland, Tickets, Tour , trackback

Situated in Rhineland-Palatinate, this extensively rebuilt Romanesque structure is the largest cathedral in Germany. Although it dates from the eleventh century, the origins of the site are much older.

To the Celts it was known as Noviomagus, and the Romans called it Civitas Nemetum. The cathedral has evolved on a former pagan holy place, for the site was occupied by a Roman temple dedicated to the Celtic goddess Nantosvelta. It is even thought `probable that buildings from the Roman period were converted to construct the church’.’ It is likely that the site was considered sacred ‘even before the Roman temple was built’ .

There is archaeological evidence of Christian worship on the site as early as 342, and a continuous list of bishops has come down from the sixth century. The first cathedral church was released from all rates and taxes by the Merovingian King Childerich II in 665. The original structure of the present cathedral was commenced in 1025 by Conrad II of the Salien dynasty: Speyer was chosen as royal burial place, and so its status was raised to that of an important dynastic and ecclesiastical centre of the Empire.

The cathedral was the largest building of its age in the West, and there were various stages of building over the years. It became a centre of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages because it possessed what was venerated as a miracle- working image of the Madonna. It was at Speyer in 1529 that the name ‘Protestants’ was first given to the followers of Martin Luther.

The French set fire to the city in 1689, when the cathedral was accidentally set alight. The cathedral was rebuilt in it original form, and a new west end was constructed using the existing Romanesque basement as a foundation. The structure was further extensively damaged around 1794, when the French took the city in the campaigns following the French Revolution. New interior and exterior additions were made in the nineteenth century. The west end, for example, was executed as a richly ornamented neo-Romanesque façade. This and the west towers, which were rebuilt at the same time, give the flavour of the original appearance of the cathedral ‘when seen from a distance’. Between 1957 and 1966 renovation took place with the aim of recovering the original Salien architecture. The floor level was reduced to that of the medieval period, alterations were made to windows to restore Romanesque proportions, the roofs were reconstructed and other modifications were carried out.

It is claimed that the structuring of the vaulting in the aisles of the cathedral shows the ratio 2:1, ‘the first example of a proportional system in medieval architecture’.

The visitor to Speyer can hardly fail to notice that the main street of the city, Maximilianstrasse, aligns on the cathedral and forms a westwards continuation of the cathedral’s axis. German geomantic researcher Ulrich Magin has noted that this line is directed westwards to Kalmit Mountain, the highest peak in the Palatinate.’ This could be the indication of a `holy hill’ line, a type of alignment onto a local hill or peak noted by ‘ley hunters’ in Britain in the 1980s and alignment researchers in Ger- many in the 1930s. Indeed, Magin has found evidence of a ley-type alignment at Speyer to which Dutch-based geomant John Palmer and the present author have been able to add features.

Starting at its eastern end, the ley or alignment crosses the Rhine at the point where, according to tradition, the bodies of the German Emperors of the Middle Ages were ferried across the river. The line passed down the axis of the cathedral, and in the forecourt or atrium in front of the west façade stands a sandstone basin on a plinth known as the Domnapf (`Cathedral cup’). This is situated on the alignment, and it marks the boundary between the secular and religious areas of influence in Speyer and thus represented the limits of episcopal immunity. The Domnapf was first mentioned in 1314 and received its present form when it was replaced around 1490. New bishops were expected to fill the basin with wine after their consecration, and this was then distributed among the citizens. John Palmer claims that this point is in fact the location of a `Blue Stone‘. These features were geometrically shaped stones that were sited in the centre of medieval towns and were of considerable importance. These stones, according to Palmer, seems to be ‘a degeneration of the older markstones and the holy stones of the Germanic and Gallic peoples’ and were where ‘judgement was pronounced . . . involving lengthy procedures bound up with the sacred number three. . . . There are definite relationships to be found with the four quarters according to which many towns were divided and organized during the early Middle Ages‘67. The Domnapf was the judicial stone of the bishops of Speyer. There may have ‘originally . . . have been an ancient megalith with a circular depression at the spring in the atrium of the basilica, dating from the time of the Merovingian king, Dagobert.’ The Blue Stones were omphaloi and were common in medieval founded towns of continental Europe such as Leiden (where the hexagonal Blue Stone was removed due to road works in 1991, hopefully to be replaced) and Delft in Holland, Lier and Ghent in Belgium, and Zurich in Switzerland. Researcher Nigel Pennick has noted the ‘Blue Stane’ of St Andrews (the home of golf) in Scotland: ‘a geomantic marker which was touched by each soldier on the way to Culloden in the ‘45 rebellion’. Palmer, who has prepared a major study of Blue Stones, regards them as ‘true geomantic features’, and has discovered ‘Red’ and ‘White’ stones, which also existed as part of the medieval geomantic system. From what evidence of original stones Palmer has been able to trace, it seems the stones very often did have a hue appropiate to their name. In fact, in the Low Countries there seemed to have been a preference for Blue Stones to be a very specific type of stone, perhaps harking back to ritual associations of remote antiquity.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
One day in Germany Speyer Cathedral, World Famous Heritage

Comments»

1. GERMANY FULL POWER TYPE - September 11, 2008: I’ day trial period, but even after one week, I can’t imagine that I’ll be sending them back!” Sherman, New Mexico “Thank you Kory, They are beautiful and fill our large room with such full and accurate sound. … GERMANY FULL POWER TYPE
2. National Rail Network - September 11, 2008: France Passed Offers unlimited travel on the national rail network of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France within a 2-month period. … National Rail Network
3. Roundtrip Airport Transfers - September 12, 2008: Trip (or annual) coverage, use a departure date and return date that corresponds with your longest trip. … Roundtrip Airport Transfers

Travel Guidebook