Cross of Bernward

Legend has it that he received relics of the True Cross from Otto III as a gift and therefore had an expensive reliquary made in the cathedral workshop.

It was originally placed on the cross altar at the eastern end of the nave of St. Michael.

[3] Since the fourteenth century, the cross is known to have been the official symbol of the cloister of St.

[4] After the abolition of the cloister it was transferred to St. Magdalen's and then to the Cathedral treasury in the twentieth century.

Smaller, but of no less significance (especially in the history of medieval plastic arts) is the Little or Silver Cross of Bernward, which was probably made in a Bernwardian workshop.