Bamberg Cathedral - Sculptures and Carvings

Sculptures and Carvings

The cathedral is about 94 m long, 28 m broad, 26 m high, and the four towers are each about 81 m high. There are lots of sculptures in the cathedral.

One of the most magnificent ones is the marble tomb of Emperor Henry II, the founder of the cathedral, and his wife, Empress Cunigunde. It took the famous sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider 14 years to carve: between 1499 and 1513. The tomb is slightly higher than floor level because below there is a crypt. The carvings round the side tell of various episodes in the lives of the imperial couple.

Under the name Henry IV., the aristocrat was Duke of Bavaria. He descended in third generation from the bavarian side line of the imperial family, the saxon, "Ottonian" line of the Luidolfinger clan, with whom his father Henry II, Duke of Bavaria, "the Wrangler", and in subsequence he himself, were in enmity. Yet, in 1002 Henry not only managed to secure himself the crown of the east-franconian kingdom ("regnum francorum orientalium", while "Germany" was a quite unknown expression yet) in something close to a coup d'etat, but in 1014 also became emperor - the last from that dynasty. St. Henry got canonised in 1146 under Pope Eugene III, St. Cunigunde in 1200 under Pope Innocenct III.

There is a beautiful Nativity altar in the south transept made in limewood by the famous artist Veit Stoss. He made it when he was about 80 years old. His son, who was a Carmelite prior in the nearby city of Nürnberg, asked him to build it. Unfortunately he was expelled from Nuremberg because he was against the Protestants, representing the overwhelming majority of the polpulation in town at the time of the Reformation. This meant that his father was never paid for his beautiful work, which was soon moved to Bamberg.