The Church of Our Lady in Roermond, the Netherlands

My thanks to a friend, Fr Mark Woodruff, for sharing with us these pictures which he took during a recent visit to the church of Our Lady in Roermond, in the south-eastern Dutch province of Limburg. It was founded as part of a Cistercian women’s monastery in the early 13th century, and is therefore commonly known as simply “the Munsterkerk - the monastery church.” (None of the monastic buildings remain.) It owes its current external appearance to a major restoration done by a local architect named Pierre Cuypers from 1863-90. Cuypers also did a major neo-Gothic renovation of the interior, but much of his work was removed in a subsequent restoration of 1959-64, which aimed to return the building to something more like the sparer original late Romanesque style (or what the restorers imagined to be such.)

At the crossing, underneath the dome, is the tomb of the church’s founders, Gerard III, Count of Flanders (1185 ca. - 1229, and his wife, Margaret of Brabant. (1190 ca. - 1231). 

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Romanesque Sculptures in a Swiss Abbey

Following up on two recent posts, we continue with some more of Nicola’s photos of the abbey of St John in Müstair, Switzerland. The first part showed the surviving frescos from the Carolingian era, and the second those of the Romanesque period; here we will see a number of Romanesque sculptures.  

The marble front of this altar is a piece of the original sanctuary enclosure of the Carolingian period (first half of the 9th century), which was later dismantled. Several pieces of it (seen further below) were reutilized as building materials, and have been recovered during modern restorations, and put on display in the museum. Much of the region around the monastery is protestant; the painting of Assumption, made in 1621, was brought to the monastery in 1838 from the parish of one of the nearby towns when the last Catholic resident passed away.

This relief of the Baptism of Christ, a work of a much later period, was mounted into the wall of the abbey church in 1492.

A statue of Charlemagne, the founder of the abbey; date uncertain, partially restored.

Madonna and Child, ca. 1250.

Pietà, second half of the 14th century. In German-speaking lands, this motif is known as a “Vesperbild - evening statue”, from the common custom of putting them on the altar on the evening of Good Friday.

As noted above, the original marble fixtures of the Carolingian period were dismantled and reused as building materials. Here we see another part of the sanctuary enclosure, depicting the Lamb of God surrounded by angels, the hand of God the Father above Him, and of St John the Baptist at the lower left.

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Romanesque Frescos in a Swiss Abbey

Following up on a post of two days ago, here are some more pictures which Nicola took in the abbey of St John in Müstair, Switzerland. The previous post showed the remains of the original fresco decorations of the Carolingian period; here will will see the Romanesque frescos in two of the churches three apses. (Unfortunately, the central apse is currently under restoration.) Here we see the apses from the outside.

Around the year 1200, when the abbey was over 4 centuries old, a new community of Benedictine nuns took possession of it, and commissioned a redecoration of the church’s interior; the new frescoes largely reproduced the iconographic program of the older one. (In the left apse seen here, we have episodes from the lives of Ss Peter and Paul.) As was done in countless other places, the older layer of fresco (from the first decades of the 9th century) was knocked full of holes to make it rougher, so the new layer would have more to grip on to. In this particular case, however, the procedure did not work very well, and much of the new layer simply slid off, exposed the older one. The frescoes were then further damaged by architectural changes at the end of the 15th century. Given all these vicissitudes, it is still remarkable how much remains, and how good a state it is in, relatively speaking.

At the top (Carolingian), the scene of the traditio Legis. Second register, left, Peter and Paul meet in Rome, right, the contest with Simon Magus. Third register: left, Nero condemns the Apostles. Under the window (the first surviving part of the Romanesque work), Peter and Paul praying, and the fall of Simon. In the bottom register, the deaths of the Apostles and their burial. 

In the right apse, at top (Carolingian), Christ in majesty surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists, and the Virgin Mary in a medallion at his feet. In the second register, the ordination of St Stephen (?) and the celebration of a Mass. In the third register (Romanesque), the ordination of St Stephen, his mission, his speech to the Sanhedrin. At the bottom, his stoning, the preparation of his body, and his burial.  

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A 12th Century Tabernacle from Cologne

This post is kind of a follow-up on the series which we concluded yesterday on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany. I say “kind of” because it is generally believed that this magnificent tabernacle comes from the basilica of St Pantaleon in Cologne, but this is not completely certain. (All images from Wikimedia Commons: 1, 3, 4, 7 and 11-13 by Fæ, CC BY 2.0; 2, 5, 6, 8-10 and 14 by Marie-Lan Nguyen, CC BY 2.5)

The tabernacle was made ca. 1180, and consists of a core of oak, covered over with gilt copper and enamel, and decorated with 32 pieces of carved ivory, both elephant and walrus. (Some of these ivories are modern restorations, as are the knot on top of the dome, and two of the griffins on which it rests.) It stands at about 1’, 9½” tall, roughly 1’, 8½” square at the base, and weighs 58 pounds. It was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1861, and has been there ever since. (See this link for more detailed information.) Beneath the dome, Christ sits with eleven of the Apostles; the sixteen standing figures on the lower part are prophets, while each side has a “door” with an ivory plaque of an event in the life of Christ. The first two of these are modern (i.e. 19th century) copies made from a reliquary in a museum in Berlin which is contemporary to this piece. On this side is the Christ Child with the Virgin Mary and St Joseph.

The Journey of the Magi.

The Crucifixion (original to this object).

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The Basilica of St Pantaleon in Cologne

We finally conclude this series on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, with the church of St Pantaleon, which I have saved for last in order to end on an artistic high note, namely, its very beautiful and well-preserved rood screen. (All images from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted.)

by Hawabo, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE 

A church is mentioned on the site in a document dated to the year 866, but the current building was founded as a Benedictine monastery by St Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, the younger brother of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great, in 955; the central nave dates to this period.

© Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0

This is the oldest church anywhere in the west of Europe dedicated to Pantaleon, a Christian doctor martyred in the first years of the fourth century, during the persecution of Diocletian, at Nicomedia, a town about 65 miles to the east of Constantinople. St Bruno’s successor-but-one as archbishop, Gero, obtained his relics while on embassy to Byzantium in 971, during which he negotiated the marriage of Emperor Otto II with Theophanu, a niece of the Eastern Roman emperor John I Tzimiskes (969-76). When her husband died, Theophanu became regent of her son Otto III. She often visited Cologne, and the church’s westwork was built ca. 980 at her behest; in accordance with her own request, she was buried here when she died in 991. (Her modern sarcophagus is in the narthex of the westwork.)

by Beckstet

© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas (cropped)

Around 1160, the single-nave Ottonian church was expanded into its current form as a three-nave basilica. The late Gothic rood screen, which is by far the church’s most interesting feature today, was built at the beginning of the 16th century.

© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 4.0

by Ljuba brank, CC BY-SA 4.0

The high altar behind the rood screen.

© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

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The Basilica of Saint George in Cologne

Thus far, the posts in this series about the twelve great Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, have been posted on the feast days of their titular Saints, or some other relevant liturgical occasion. The two that remain are dedicated to St George and St Pantaleon, whose feasts are on April 23 and July 27 respectively, which is too long to wait, so I will do the former today, and save the latter, which is far more beautiful and interesting, for next week to conclude the series. (All images from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 or public domain unless otherwise noted.)

An oratory dedicated to a martyr named Caesarius was built on this site, reutilizing walls of an ancient Roman building, sometime in the 7th century, but seems to have been destroyed during the Norman incursions into the region around Cologne in the later 9th century. St Anno II, archbishop of Cologne from 1056-75, founded a new collegiate church in the same place, which he dedicated to St George; both Saints are depicted in this mosaic in the tympanum over the main door, the work of a local artist named Eduard Schmitz, made in 1930.

by Arabsalam

Like many churches in Germany, the complex was neglected after the great state-sponsored theft of ecclesiastical property at the beginning of the 19th century, and all of the conventual buildings around it torn down. This painting made in 1827 shows the choir with its Baroque roof, and the late medieval parish church of St James, which was attached to St Georg by a cloister, now destroyed. 

The church was heavily damaged during World War Two; the new roof of the choir was added in the post-War restorations, completed in 1964. 

© Raimond Spekking

This photograph of the interior was taken in 1911.

Shortly after World War I, the church had to be closed for fear that it would collapse. From 1927-30, it was given a very severe restoration, typical for its era, which sought to return it to something like its supposedly original appearance by whitewashing the interior. Between these various restorations, the interior is now mostly very plain.

by Chris06

As part of the interwar restoration, the church was also given a new set of Art Nouveau stained glass windows designed by a Dutch artist named Johan Thorn Prikker (1868-1932), which would have been better chosen for a different kind of architectural setting.

© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0

The new sanctuary area in front of the choir, decorated for Christmas, but still exceedingly plain.

by Pedro J Pacheco

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The 11th Century Doors of Sankta Maria im Kapitol in Cologne, Germany

Since we have three Marian feasts this week, Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Loreto (today), and Our Lady of Guadalupe (Thursday), it’s a good time to finish up part of our ongoing series on the Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, with the last major feature of Sankta Maria im Kapitol, the city’s principal Marian church. (See parts one and two of this same church from last month.) This is a wooden door which dates to the time of the building’s first construction, ca. 1060, and which has survived the vicissitudes of its history in an astonishingly good condition, even preserving some of the original paint. It was first mounted into the north apse as an external door, facing the city, but has been moved more than once since then, and now stands at the back of the south aisle, with a gate in front of it for preservation purposes.

This makes for less-than-ideal photography, so the images available on Wikimedia Commons do not give us a complete overview of the iconographic program. The doors measure roughly 15’ 11” by 8’ 1½”; the narrative panels are framed by elaborate wooden tracery which is fitted around them to create the illusion that the doors are carved as a single piece. The figures are in unusually high relief, some of them even sticking out of their frames, although this makes them far more likely to get broken over time, and there are a number of figures missing wholly or in part. The iconographic program includes all the major events of the life of Christ, on the left side, from the Annunciation to His Baptism, and on the right, from Palm Sunday to Pentecost. Four scenes of the Temptation of Christ originally ran across the bottom of both panels; these are the most badly damaged.

On the left: the Annunciation and Visitation in the top panel, the appearance of the Angels to the shepherds and the birth of Christ in the second row. On the right: the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem at the top, and the healing of the blind Man and the raising of Lazarus in the second row. (These last two follow the order of the liturgical readings of the fourth week of Lent, on Wednesday and Friday respectively.)

On the left: at top, the Magi before Herod, and their adoration of the Christ Child; below that, the Angel appears to Joseph in a dream, and the flight into Egypt: third row, the messengers speak to Herod, and Herod makes inquiry of the scribes.

In the upper band in this image, Herod sending out his soldiers, and the Massacre of the Innocents, and in lower, the Baptism of Christ.

This was the clearest picture available of the lowest panels on both sides, which depicted the Temptation of Christ in four scenes, now very damaged.

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The Basilica of Saint Andrew in Cologne

For the feast of St Andrew the Apostle, we continue our ongoing series on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of the city of Cologne, Germany, with the one dedicated to him. We have already seen part of the church earlier this month, on the feast of St Albert the Great, since he is buried in the crypt. It also houses relics of the Maccabee brothers in a very beautiful reliquary shrine, shown below. (All images from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted.)

The church was founded as a secular canonry in 974, but significantly expanded and rebuilt in the 12th and 13th centuries; the westwork, nave and central tower date from this period. Cologne was where the Dominicans established their very first house in Germany, only a very short time after St Dominic’s death, welcomed by the canons of this church. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Dominicans’ were suppressed in Germany, and their church and monastery in Cologne were both destroyed; they returned to the city in 1947, and have had charge of St Andrew’s church ever since then.

by Johan Bakker

by Edgar El, CC BY-SA 3.0

C. Raimond Spekking

In the 15th century, the original choir was destroyed, and rebuilt in the Gothic style (lower right in the this photo), followed by the north transept in 1470/80 (on the right), and the south transept by 1492.

by Островский Александр, Киев, CC BY-SA 3.0

There are not a lot of good photos of the building available, but one can see a very good panorama of the interior on Google maps. Here we see the nave from the second bay (moving forward), roughly the point at which the architecture transitions from Romanesque to Gothic. I suspect that the Crucifix and statues of Our Lady and St John mounted on the arch were originally part of a rood screen, which would have been positioned right below where they are now.

C. Raimond Spekking

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The Basilica of Sankta Maria ‘im Kapitol’ in Cologne (Part 2)

Continuing our series on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, this is the second article on the city’s principal church of the Virgin Mary, Sankta Maria ‘im Kapitol’. The first post was published last week, and covered the architectural structure, so this one will show the church’s most notable artistic works, with one exception, which I am leaving until Advent, a wooden door made at the time of its original construction, ca. 1060 AD. (Images from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted.)

A stained-glass window in the north wall, with St James the Apostle on the left, and then hometown heroes Ss Ursula (middle) and Gereon, both of whom have churches of their own in the city. Dated after 1510.

by MenkinAlRire

The Crucifixion, with St Hubert, the Virgin Mary, Ss John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalen (at the foot of the Cross), St Jerome (right), and the donors in the lower section, William IV, Duke of Jülich-Berg (1475-1511) on the left, and his wife Sibilla of Brandenburg and their daughter Mary. Made after 1510.

by Armin Kleiner

Another of St James the Apostle, 16th century

by Michael Wittwer

A 16 century carving of the burial of Christ in painted sandstone.

by Hans Peter Schaefer, CC BY-SA 3.0

An old Romanesque stylophore, i.e. a base designed to hold up a column, very often part of an external porch. Lions were popular for these all over Europe, and before the 12th century, often look like large grinning cats, since they were extinct in Europe, and most of the artists had never seen one.  

by HOWI, CC BY 3.0

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