User:Chrisblore/Luebeck Cathedral

Lübeck Cathedral was the first large brick church to be built on the Baltic sea.

Construction story
In 1173, Heinrich the Lion laid the first stone of the building as a cathedral for the Diocese of Lübeck. In 1160 the bishopric of Oldenburg in Holstein was moved here under Bishop Gerold. The old Romanesque church was completed around 1230 and between 1266 and 1335 was changed into a Gothic style in which the side aisles were raised by approximately 20 metres to a similar height as that of the central aisle.

During a bombing raid on the night of Palm Sunday from 28 March to 29 March 1942, in which a fifth of the centre of Lübeck was destroyed, several bombs fell in the area, plunging into the eastern vault and destroying the high altar from 1696. The fire at the neighbouring Cathedral museum spread to the roof truss of the Cathedral. Around midday on Palm Sunday, the tower collapsed with the organ built by Arp Schnitger being destroyed by the flames. Despite this, a relatively large number of the internal fittings such as the crucifix and almost all of the winged altars were able to be saved. In 1946, following the end of the war, the unsecured gable of the northern transept split, hitting the foyer and destroying it almost completely.

Reconstruction after 1945
The reconstruction lasted for several decades, as a greater priority was placed on that of the Lübecker Marienkirche. It was only completed in 1982.

In 2002, a symposium took place in conjunction with the Lübeck Music School to consider the possibilities of reconstructing the reconstruction of the Arp Schnitger organ. It concluded that such a project was technically possible but the plans are still under consideration.

Lübeck Cathedral is unique in the fact that at 105 metres in height, it is smaller than the largest church in Lübeck. This is as a result of a power struggle between the Church and the hanse.

Translating from http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BCbecker_Dom