Brunswick Cathedral

Brunswick Cathedral with Bronze Lion

The Brunswick Cathedral (German: Dom St. Blasii (et Johannis), lit. in English: Collegiate Church of Ss. Blaise and John the Baptist) is a large Lutheran church in the City of Braunschweig (Brunswick), Germany. Henry the Lion founded it as a collegiate church and it was built between 1173 and 1195. The church is termed Dom, in German a synecdoche - pars pro toto - used for cathedrals and collegiate churches alike, and much like the Italian Duomo, is imperfectly translated here by the English cathedral. After the Reformation the college has been dissolved and the church is currently owned and used by a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Brunswick.

The construction was disrupted several times during the various exiles of Henry, so he and his consort Matilda, Duchess of Saxony were both buried in an unfinished church. The limestone statues on the tomb in the nave are an idealised representation made one generation after their death, between 1230 and 1240. The cathedral was consecrated on December 29, 1226, dedicated to Saints Blaise, John the Baptist and Thomas Becket. It turned Protestant in 1543 after the City of Brunswick in opposition to Duke Henry V of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel had joined the Schmalkaldic League.

Among the most important pieces on display in the church are a wooden crucifix by Master Imervard (second half of the 12th century) and one of very few huge bronze candlesticks with seven arms, from around 1170-1180.

The Cathedral is also the burial place of Caroline of Brunswick, Queen Consort of George IV of the United Kingdom. Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg is also buried here.

Other burials

• Henry the Lion (1129–1195)
  • Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony (1156–1189), his wife
• Egbert II, Margrave of Meissen (1060–1090)
  • Gertrude of Brunswick (1060–1117), his sister
• Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1175/76-1218)
  • Empress Beatrice of Hohenstaufen (1198–1212), his wife
• Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1671–1735)
  • Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen (1671–1747), his wife
• Ferdinand Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1636–1687),
  • Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1680–1735), his son, Duke Louis Rudolph's son-in-law and successor
    • Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1713–1780), his son
    • Duke Louis Ernest of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1718–1788), his brother, Captain-General of the Dutch Republic from 1750 to 1766
    • Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick (1721–1792), his brother, Prussian field marshal from 1758 to 1766
      • Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (1735–1806), Charles' I son, killed at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt
        • Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1771–1815), his son, the Black Duke, killed at the Battle of Quatre Bras
          • William, Duke of Brunswick (1806–1884), his son, last descendant of the House of Brunswick-Bevern

External links

• Official site of the Brunswick Cathedral (in English)