We continue our series on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, with the church dedicated to the city’s third bishop, Severinus, whose feast is kept today. He lived in the later decades of the 4th century, and is called “Severin” in German; very little is recorded of his life, and he was long confused with another bishop of the same name, who held the see of Bordeaux in France at roughly the same time. (The name of the latter is “Seurin” in French.) By a happy coincidence, another Severinus is also celebrated today, since this is one of the names of the philosopher Boethius. (All images from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted.)
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| A sculpture of St Severinus over the door of the church. (by HOWI) |
Severinus of Cologne is said to have built the progenitor of the church which now bears his name as a monastery dedicated to Ss Cornelius and Cyprian, who still officially share the title with him. As with the other churches, it was remodeled more than once before the rebuilding which gave it its current form; the oldest parts of the current structure date back to the 10th century.
The church formerly had a large Romanesque tower on the façade, which was demolished in 1393 to make way for a Gothic replacement, although the stone cladding of the new tower was not completed until the mid-16th century.
The nave and its underlying crypt were consecrated in 1043, while the Gothic choir was finished ca. 1230.
The nave was renovated in the late Gothic style from the end of the 14th century to the 16th century.
A closer view of the completely uninteresting modern altar, and the choir behind it.
Unfortunately, there are not as many good pictures of the church available on Wikimedia Commons as we would like, but you can virtually walk around inside
on Google Maps by clicking here.
This drinking-horn is known as the Horn of Saint Cornelius, since around the year 1500, it was turned into a reliquary of several saints, including Cornelius and Cyprian, who, as mentioned above, were the church’s original titular Saints, and some of the relics of the 11,000 virgins martyred with Saint Ursula,
whose church we saw on Monday.
A section of the original pavement of the choir, in black and yellow marble, designed in imitation of the Roman style known as Cosmatesque. (In the virtual tour linked above, one can see that is now mostly surrounded by a modern replacement in a similar color scheme, but less complicated design.)
A photograph taken in 1895 of the altar with the relics of St Severin at the end of the choir; the Baroque angels around it, each holding an instruments of the Passion, have since been removed, but the altar itself is substantially the same. This altar was made in 1888 by a sculptor from Cologne named Friedrich Mengelberg; the reliquary of St Severin at top could concealed behind the curtains during Exposition of the Sacrament.
The reliquary of St Severin is seen here at the top of the altar: the bronze relief panels below it depict four episodes of his life: 1. He preaches to the heathen; 2. he hears the angelic choirs singing when St Martin of Tours dies (a story which properly belongs to the Severin of Bordeaux); 3. his own death; 4. a procession with his reliquary. The mosaics on the base on the altar depict the Last Supper in the middle, with Old Testament prefigurations of the Eucharist to either side: from left to right, Melchizedek and Abraham; the Sacrifice of Isaac; the eating of the Pascha before the Exodus; and the Fall of the Manna.
The reliquary casket of St Severinus. (Both images
by HOWI.)
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