[1][2] It depicts images from the life of Jesus, arranged in a helix similar to Trajan's Column: it was originally topped with a cross or crucifix.

This arrangement of a column topped with a cross, an altar and a wheel chandelier was modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was also equated with the forehall of the Temple of Solomon.

[8] The rest of the column was not melted down in the following years (despite its value as raw material) because of its ancient significance as a contact relic, since it was believed to have been made personally by St. Bernward.

In 1810, after the secularisation of the Catholic cloister (1803) and the abolition of the Protestant parish of St. Michael's (1810), the column was removed on the private initiative of diocese officials and installed in the north of the Domhof between the cathedral and the Bishop's house.

[11] Both artworks, like the rest of Bernward's artistic and architectural programme, reflect his efforts to put his seat in the position of a northern Rome in the context of the Ottonian dynasty's renewed Christian Roman Empire and also to emphasise Christ as a model of just and godly kingship for the rulers.

For this reason, the execution of John the Baptist by the weak and unjust king Herod Antipas is given a great deal of space.

An important indicator of the liturgical significance of the Bernward column is its original location on the central axis of St. Michael's, near the altar, where Holy Communion was distributed and where the sacrament was kept.