The Hildesheim Cathedral Museum preserves one of the world's most important collections of medieval art: the Hildesheim Cathedral Treasure, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.
It all began 1200 years ago with a miracle, to which the diocese of Hildesheim also owes its origins: according to legend, a miracle involving relics in 815 prompted Emperor Louis the Pious to build a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary on the site of today's cathedral courtyard. Bishop Altfrid then founded the first cathedral building on this in 872.
The so-called Altfrid Cathedral now had its own treasury, in which the precious altar utensils, chasubles and liturgical books were kept. The existence of this chamber is reported in the Hildesheim annals in connection with a fire in 1013. Although the fire was quickly extinguished, valuable furnishings for the church service and an immense number of manuscripts fell victim to it.
It is possible that this fire gave Bishop Bernward, who was reigning at the time, the reason to ‘embellish his cathedral with marvellous beauty’, as his biographer, the cathedral canon Thangmar, has recorded. Thangmar reports of precious gospel books ‘resplendent with gold and precious stones’, censers of ‘considerable value and weight’ as well as several ornate chalices made of onyx, crystal and pure gold. Bernward himself also boasted of his rich endowments and mentioned golden crowns, chalices, candlesticks, ceilings and ornaments. However, apart from the famous bronze door, only the so-called Great Golden Madonna has survived from Bernward's rich donations to the cathedral, which is still a testimony to Romanesque art today.
The founding reliquary is the centrepiece of the Hildesheim Cathedral treasury.
© Monheim/Dommuseum
The Great Golden Madonna dates from the time of Bishop Bernward.
© Monheim/Dommuseum
Altfrid Cathedral was severely damaged by a fire on 23 March 1046. However, it appears that significant parts of the church treasure and, above all, the relics were saved. The damage to the cathedral was so severe that Bishop Azelin wanted to abandon it in favour of a new building extended to the west. However, the endeavour failed. Azelin's successor Hezilo therefore had the cathedral restored to its original dimensions. At the reconsecration, Hezilo had part of the cathedral treasure laid down inside the new high altar, which was preserved until the cathedral was destroyed again on 22 March 1945 and was only removed when the rubble was cleared, without anyone knowing how old it was. Fortunately, two large boxes full of relics were recovered at the time.
The common designation of the golden coffin of honour as the shrine of St Epiphanius is misleading in that this shrine was not created for the bones of the holy bishop, but also contains the relics of other Hildesheim cathedral patrons.
In the 12th century, the relics of the oldest cathedral patron saint, which had previously been hidden in the crypt, were transferred to a new golden shrine, which was placed behind the high altar like a reredos. Further reliquaries were added on feast days. In the Middle Ages, the cathedral room was therefore additionally secured by a grille, the doors of which could be closed as required. Two treasure chambers, which were used as such until the 19th century, were used for the safekeeping of movable cimelia, among other things. One was located on the south side of the choir, while the other, much smaller one was on the north side. Relics and, in particular, those items from the church treasury that were only placed on the high altar for veneration on special occasions were kept in these treasure chambers. These included, for example, the head reliquary of St Oswald and the Great Golden Madonna.
In the Baroque period, the identity of the diocese was seen to be embodied in the medieval treasures of the cathedral treasury. The cathedral treasury became an admired antiquity, as is impressively documented in a series of copperplate engravings, the title page of which bears the inscription ‘Gloriosa Antiquitas Hildesina’. Apparently, the cathedral chapter also deliberately included its treasures in the programme of visits by high-ranking personalities, as is documented on the occasion of a princely visit around 1820.
In the middle of the 19th century, increasing visitor interest prompted the state building authorities responsible for the cathedral since secularisation to extend the old treasury on the south side of the choir as part of a major restoration campaign in the episcopal church. The project was certainly fuelled by the first printed academic treatise on the Hildesheim cathedral treasury by Johann Michael Kratz, a Hildesheim historian and private scholar, which was published in 1840.
In 1856, the Hildesheim art treasures were shown for the first time as patriotic antiquities in an exhibition organised by the art-historically interested Hildesheim bishop Eduard Jakob Wedekin in the cathedral on the occasion of the meeting of the German history and antiquities societies. The very next year, a representative selection was illustrated in detailed steel engravings.
The clearer it became that the Hildesheim cathedral treasury was of extraordinary importance, both artistically and historically, the more urgent it became to find an appropriate way of presenting it. The medieval treasury had long since proved to be too cramped. After the dissolution of St Michael's Abbey, significant parts of the church treasury had been added to the cathedral treasury. The cathedral chapter itself had also made a significant contribution to the treasury becoming too small over the course of time through the targeted acquisition of secularised items from private ownership and the transfer of individual items of cathedral furnishings deemed worthy of a museum to the treasury. In 1884, the treasures were therefore transferred from the cathedral choir to a new treasury above the sacristy. A museum collection was thus separated from the ‘regalia’ of the episcopal church. In future, only this ensemble of treasures was to be referred to as the cathedral treasury.
During the Second World War, the Hildesheim cathedral treasury was saved from destruction when the sacristy wing of the cathedral was reduced to rubble in a hail of bombs on 22 March 1945. From 1960, the cathedral treasury was once again displayed in its own treasure chamber above the sacristy. As a witness to a great past, the cathedral treasury was the centrepiece of the central exhibition for the 79th German Catholic Congress in Hanover in 1962. Since 1978, it has formed the centrepiece of the diocesan museum, which was re-established at that time. It has since merged with the museum's holdings to form the Hildesheim Cathedral Museum.
To this day, the identity-forming significance of this unique ensemble of ecclesiastical decoration has remained. Taking this into account was the aim of the new installation initiated by the cathedral chapter in the immediate vicinity of the bishop's church, which was realised in the course of the cathedral renovation. Now, more than before, the cathedral and cathedral museum can once again be experienced as a single entity, providing comprehensive and direct access to the understanding of a high medieval church, which was a key reason for the UNESO to include Hildesheim Cathedral and its cathedral treasures on the World Heritage List in 1985.