04.05.2010

As of 7 May Bernward's door stays in the Roemer- and Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim

Hildesheim (bph) The cathedral-restoration involves it: In these days the famous Bernward's door, which belongs to the Hildesheim World Cultural Heritage, in the western part of the bishop's church is unhinged, to find another place to stay temporarily. Until the ending of the restorationwork it is to show up in the Hildesheim Roemer- and Pelizaeus-Museum, which supports its famous item on loan with an attractive framework programme.

Assistants of the Hasenkamp company surround the right leaf with a steelcorset; origin of photo material: bph

At first the Old Testament fall. It was yesterday, a Monday, when some men of the special company Hasenkamp from Frechen detached the left leaf of the monumental bronze-door with scenes from the Old Testament out of the enormous welts, to store it in the cathedral temporarily until the evacuation. Project manager Matthias Szarata and his eight assistants from Frechen layed in the first instance two steely stretching frames with rubber buffers aound the leaves after doing preparations for hours, before a jib crane lifted the leaf vertical inside the church, where it was laid horizontal on a padded frame. Today the right leaf could be assured the same way, so that the men of Hasenkamp can drive the bronze-door to the neighbouring museum with their special-transporter on Tuesday or Wednesday. There it is positioned the same elaborate way.

The Hasenkamp company has some experiences with such extraordinary jobs. Last year the international logistic service organisation brought Christ's Column from the cathedral to St. Michael's church and built up a good reputation by transporting other cultural artifacts.

Among the bronze-doors in the Middle Ages Bernward's door is singular. With its height of 4,72 metres and a leafbreath of 1,12 resp. 1,14 metres and a weight of about 1,85 tons its one of the biggest ensembles of its kind and is only exceeded by the bronze-doors of Verona, Trani and Monreale, which are significant younger. Besides their leaves are mounted together from single parts, but are not casted as one piece, like both leaves in Hildesheim. Also unique is the sprawling relief. Almost whole-plastic do the figures get upwards from the base.

A frame is dividing both of the leaves in eight parallel reclinded illustrations. The downwards going sequence on the left begins with the creation of Adam. After there is the marriage ot Adam and Eve, the Fall of Men, ordeal, expulsion from paradise, hereon the life of the first human pair on earth, the sacrifice of Cain and Abel and the fratricide with the adjudgement, which is enacted to Cain. On the right rises the sequence and shows scenes from the New Testament. Starting with the annunciation to Mary, about the birth of Christ, the adoration of the Kings, the illustration of the temple, the interrogation of Jesus, crucifixion and the women at the empty grave of Jesus, up to the easter illustration of the meeting of the resurrected with Mary Magdalene.

The door was worked in the lost wax technique. In the course of doing this you preform the entire opus in wax and then you cover it with sand or loam. Affiliating the wax is melted and the accruing cavitiy is filled with liquid metal.

Presumbly Bernward gave order to manufacture this monumental door for the cathedral around the year 1000. To follow the wording on the donor's inscription it had to be completed in 1015. It is certain, that Bernward's successor Godehard created a new main-entrance in the west and converted the leaves there. The masterpiece came through the cathedral's fire from 1046 and stayed unharmed. Only when it was to reckon with dropping of bombs in the second World War, Bernward's door was unhinged and was removed to a safe place. In the reconstructed cathedral it was shifted together with the coverage from the Heziloperiod to the westfront of the atrium in 1960. In the course of the cathedral restoration Bernward's door is shifted into the inside of the cathedral and is turned, that the images are exposed towards the visitors, like the donor had planed it originally.

After the transfer into the Roemer- and Pelizaeus-Museum Bernward's door can be visited from Friday, 7 May, during the regular opening hours. Then the current admission charge is valid. Within a city tour visitors can only see Bernward's door and have to pay 1 € per head. On the first Sunday every month Bernward's door can be visited free of charge between 11.00 and 12.00 am. From 11.30 am students from the university of Hildesheim come near the bronze-door under the direction of Jan Hellwig and Willfried Beck and have their own musically-literary interpretation according to the motto „music and word at the porta salutis“.

Information:
Roemer- and Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim
Am Steine 1-2, 31134 Hildesheim
Phone: (05121) 9369-0
Internet: www.rpmuseum.de
Opening hours: Tuesday till Sunday 10 am to 6 pm