Schwerin - Dom

Schwerin is the capital German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with less than 100000 inhabitants it is the least populous of all German state capitals.

Schwerin is enclosed by lakes. In the middle part of these lakes was a settlement of the Slavic Abodrites way before 1000. The settlement was first mentioned in 1018. After Henry the Lion had defeated the Abodrites, he had the defences rebuilt and granted city rights. 1160 is therefore traditionally regarded as the "German" year of Schwerin's foundation.

After Henry the Lion had now subjugated the lands of the Obotrites, he appointed a bishop in the (already abandoned) bishopric of Mecklenburg. This bishop moved the bishopric from remote Mecklenburg to Schwerin in 1167. There, in the presence of Henry the Lion himself, an act of consecration took place in 1171 on the Romanesque predecessor building of today's cathedral. At this time, only the apse will have been completed. The entire cathedral was not consecrated until 1248. Of this building, not much is left.

When Count Heinrich von Schwerin returned from the Crusade in 1222 he presented the church the valuable relic of the Holy Blood. So the cathedral became the most important pilgrimage church in north-eastern Germany. The Romanesque basilica was too small - and so the construction of the new Schwerin Cathedral began around 1270.

In 1327 the new choir was completed. By the end of the 14th century, the transept and the nave were finished except for the vaults. Builders from Stralsund completed the windows of the nave and its vaulting in 1416, thus ending the building history of the Gothic basilica of Schwerin Cathedral.

The very most of the cathedral´s medieval furnishing got lost during the iconoclasms of the Reformation and the later "renovations". None of the 42 side-altars survived and even the "Holy Blood" relic was burned by Duke Johann Albrecht around 1550.

The Gothic winged altar is in an inventory from 1553. It was donated by the Bishop of Schwerin, Konrad Loste, as can be read in the reconstructed inscription below the panel: "Anno domini mccccxcv reverendus in Christo pater et Dominus D. Conradus Loste episcopus Sverinensis hanc tabulam de propriis suis donavit". Of the entire altar, only the reredos with wings has survived.

The central picture is carved from sandstone about 1420/30. Depicted are the Carrying of the Cross, Crucifixion, Ascension of Christ into Hell and the guardians of the grave.

Note the "Hell´s mouth" on the right corner. The devils look like little monkeys - and as it is Christ´s victory, Satan is bound to the pillar.