Fritzlar - St. Peter

St. Peter (aka "Fritzlarer Dom") is tightly connected to Saint Bonifatius. the most important christian missionary in the east of the Frankish Kingdom, preaching the gospel to the germanic tribes.

The "Vita sancti Bonifati", written only some decades after his martyrdom in 755, tells, that Saint Bonitatius came to this place and chopped down a sacred oak, dedicated to the pagan god Thor (Donar). All onlookers were waiting for Thor´s fierce reaction, but Thor did not care. After the felling Saint Bonifatius used the timber - and had a wooden church built here. There is a statue in front of the church, that shows Bonifatius standing on the stub of a oak, holding a huge axe. He founded a monastery nearby and named Saint Wigbert the first abbot. Saint Wigbert replaced the humble wooden structure by a prestigious stone one. This was probably the church that archeologists found traces of. It dates back to the end of the 8th century. Times were hard, in 774 pagan Saxons destroyed the abbey, but the stone church (23 meters.long), obviously withstook the attacs.

But the Saxons returned in 1079 - and this time, they looted and destroyed the abbey, the church and the settlement. The building of a three nave, flat roofed basilica started 1085/1090 and was completed in 1118. It was an impressing large church with an extensive westwork, but already in 1171 the visiting Archbishop found the structure in such a bad state, the he commisioned a "rebuilding", what, as the romanesque style had changed created a "new church".

Nowadays many architectural styles can be found here, as architects and builders were busy all the time.

The oldest still existing structure of St. Peter is the crypt, as that was part of the basilica that was completed in 1118. The crypt is rather complex, as it consists out of three units. The central crypt, seen here, is flanced by two round ones.