Bremen Cathedral

St Peter's was built as the cathedral church of local sandstone in several stages by Bishop Willerich.

Early in the tenure of Archbishop Adalbrand (1035–1043) the church was in the process of being rebuilt and enlarged, but in 1041 most of Bremen including the cathedral was destroyed by a terrible fire.

The cathedral was rebuilt as a pillared basilica with rounded Romanesque style arches and a flat timber ceiling.

The building plan was based on the cruciform shape of the cathedral at Benevento in Campania, Italy which Adalbert was familiar with.

He also brought craftsmen from Lombardy to make repairs and embellish the cathedral, much to the consternation of local builders and artists.

The construction of the lower storeys of the western façade and towers – in pure romanesque style – may have begun before the decree and even before the onset of Gerhard's rule.

Differing from the Romance parts, the vaults and new walls were constructed in brick as were many other large ecclesiastic and public buildings in northern Europe.

He "personally 'miraculously' retrieved the relics of the holy physicians Cosmas and Damian, which were allegedly immured and forgotten in the quire of Bremen Cathedral.

[3] In celebration of the retrieval Prince-Archbishop and cathedral chapter arranged a feast at Pentecost 1335, when the relics were translated from the wall to a more dignified place."

The shrine from carved oak wood covered with gilt rolled silver is considered an important mediaeval gold work.

In 1547 the chapter, meanwhile prevailingly Lutheran, appointed the Dutch Albert Hardenberg, called Rizaeus, as the first Cathedral preacher of Protestant affiliation.

Rizaeus turned out to be a partisan of the rather Zwinglian understanding of the Lord's Supper, which was rejected by the then Lutheran burghers, city council, and chapter.

While the majority of Bremen's burghers and city council adopted Calvinism until the 1590s, the chapter, being simultaneously the body of secular government in the neighbouring Prince-Archbishopric, clung to Lutheranism.

On 27 January 1638, the southern belfry, that had already looked unstable for more than a century, collapsed causing severe damage to surrounding buildings and killing eight people.

In administrative matters, the Lutherans that joined the services in the cathedral, at the same time were members of the Calvinist parishes of the municipal districts, where they lived.

To get space for the increasing audience of the services, some galleries were built inside the central nave and the northern aisle.

in the same period, in 1694/96, the Lutheran church received a new main altar with a canopy, resembling St. Peter's Baldachin in Vatican Basilica.

About 80 years later, the western rose window had to be changed (for a simpler one), in order to prevent damages of the organ caused by humidity.

In 1803 the cathedral immunity district with St Peter's, meanwhile an extraterritorial enclave of the Electorate of Hanover, which had gained the duchy of Bremen-Verden in, was incorporated into the Free Imperial City of Bremen.

Its burgomaster Johann Smidt, a devout member of the Reformed (Calvinist) church, confiscated the considerable estates of the Lutheran congregation.

The representatives of the Lutheran congregation, led by the cathedral preacher Johann David Nicolai, started to fight for its right to exist.

After more than two centuries of economic decline, for the free city of Bremen investments in its nautic and other transport infrastructure had priority to the reconstruction of the cathedral.

In the western crypt, nowadays used as baptismal chapel, it is decorated with the oldest sculpture of the cathedral, Jesus Christ as a ruler with Saint Peter's key.

Up to the nineteenth century, the cathedral choir, which still exists today, was situated in the crossing and divided from the transepts by lateral walls.

Furthermore, it contains two sculptures from the western façade, the coronation of Saint Mary from the attic and the relic of the crucifixion from the southern central arch.

St Peter's has several fine examples of artistic epitaphs for individuals that have survived the many restorations of the cathedral.

Their identity is displayed: two Swedish officers from the Thirty Years' War, an English countess, a murdered student, and a local pauper.

After 1072 Adam wrote The Deeds of the Bishops of the Hamburg Church, a history of the missionary efforts in northern Germany and Scandinavia in four volumes.

Adam of Bremen, as he became known, used the earlier works of others available to him at what was left of the cathedral library to describe the events and people in the Christianization of north Germany, Frisia, and Scandinavia, for which Hamburg had authority to send missionaries.

When a man reaches the age of 30 and still is not married, he must sweep the cathedral steps until a young woman gives him a kiss and then he is released from his duty.