Remagen - Pfarrhoftor

One of the first printed records about this gate stated in 1859 "Of all old monuments in the Rhine valley, none as mysterious as the portal (...) near the church in Remagen".

The Pfarrhoftor (= Gateway to the parish close) still is enigmatic. It may have been erected for a nearby monastery, that centered around an St. Apollinaris shrine, it may have been in deed a gate to a parish close. Actually it known since the 17th century, when parts of it were found, walled in between the rectory and the encircling wall. The parts were recovered and like pieces of a puzzle joined together.

Though the cope stone was lost, the large arch was easy to reconstruct. Wether the smaller side portal originally was left or right is unclear.
The 22 carved reliefs here have triggered more than a dozend different theories. I will quote some. The carving style was not appreciated by the art-historians. Already Wilhelm Bode ("Geschichte der Deutschen Plastik") wrote in 1887 that the carver was "without any artistic ambition".

For me this portal has parallels in Linden and Goegging. All three portals are roughly carved - and enigmatic, blending christian, pagan and ancient icons. The only point, that is undisputed is, that the portal was erected in the second half of the 12th century.

It may be, that the reliefs, seen here, are just single icons, that are not interconnected to a certain "iconographic program". This is claimed by Paul Clement (1938), Georg Dehio (1933) and Josef Minn (1942). In 1947 Albert M. Koeniger published the results of his research, interpreting the reliefs at the large gate as icons of eight (!) deadly sins as described by Bishop Burchard of Worms (965-1025), author of a canon law collection (aka "Decretum Burchardi"), while the reliefs at the smaller entrance, stand for "hubris".

This is an undisputed icon.

Here is Alexander the Great going up to heaven in a basket, powered by two griffins. He controls them by holding up two roasted puppies impaled on sticks which he twirls to make the creatures dirigible.

For Koeninger this is "hubris" even of the greated dignities, as flying is not for mortal humans.

Julianna Lees has published a very interesting article, titled
"Representations of the Fantastical Adventures of Alexander the Great in Romanesque and pre-Romanesque Art":

www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/alexander.pdf