Basel Munster (or Cathedral)

Basel Munster, or Basel Cathedral, located in Basel, Switzerland, was built between 1019 and 1500. It is also known as the Heinrich Munster (Henry in English) as Emperor Henry II is its patron. Unfortunately the facade was having restoration work so we did not see it in its full splendor.

The building, as it looks today, was completed about 1225. 

Then a massive earthquake in 1356 did significant damage. The architect who did the towers in Ulm and Strasbourg (both towers we have climbed), Ulrich von Ensingen, extended the north (or left) tower known as Georgsturm, finishing it in about 1429. The tower is named after St. George of the Golden Legend. St. George killed a dragon, that had defeated whole armies, in a lake near Silena, Libya, with a single blow of his lance. St. George is portrayed in an equestrian statue below the tower. He is shown lancing  a very small and un-intimidating dragon. 

The statue originated in 1372 (but I believe must be a later replica).The southern (right) tower, known as Martinsturm, was completed in 1500 and was the architectural completion of the building. Martinsturm is named after St. Martin, the same saint for which St. Martin's Cathedral in Bratislava is named after. St. Martin, in the Roman army in Gaul, cut his own military cloak in half to share it with a beggar. Saint Martin's statue is below that tower, showing Martin in the act of cutting his cloak with a dagger. 

That statue originated in 1340.  A beautiful clock on the facade above St. Martin and below Martinsturm.

An outside statue.

Henry II was born in 973 and died in 1024. His wife, Kunigunde, was born in 975 and died in 1040. They were married in 998 and took vows of virginity. Henry became king of Germany in 1002, king of Italy in 1004, and Holy Roman emperor in 1014, and maintained those tittles until the end of his life. Henry was canonized as a saint by Pope Eugenius III in 1146, the only king of Germany to be given that honor. Kunigunde was canonized as a saint by Pope Innocent III in 1200. Henry is the patron saint of the city of Basel and the benefactor of Basel Cathedral. There are a number of representations of them on the outside and inside of the cathedral. Between the two towers are statues of Henry and Kunigunde, Henry with a model of the church in his arms and Kunigunde holding a cross. 

Inside the cathedral is stained glass with both Henry and Kunigunde holding a model of the church. 

Below is a bust of Kunigunde. 

There are some wonderful memorials. I particularly love knights. The tomb of Rudolf III who died in 1318

 represents him dressed in chain mail, a sword by his side, and feet up against a lion. 

The tomb of Heinrich V who died in 1403 is dressed in armor, 

a sword by his side, also with feet up against a lion. 

A beautiful series of scenes that look like they are carved out of stone.

 Basil was the site of an ecumenical council, selected by Pope Martin V, trying to enact church reform. Basel was selected because it was outside the territories of the Papacy, the Holy Roman Empire and the kings of Aragon and France. The council began in 1431 and was presided over by the cardinal, Julian Cesarini. It adopted an anti-papal attitude and prescribed an oath to be taken by every pope on his election. It was transferred to Ferrara in 1438 by the decree of Pope Eugene IV and then to Florence in 1439 and became known as the Counsel of Florence. When the council was moved from Basel, some of the participants remained, still claiming to be the council, and elected Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, as Antipope. They were eventually driven out of Basel in 1448 to Lausanne.

On February 9, 1529, during the iconoclasm of the Protestant Reformation, the church was attacked. About 40 men destroyed crucifixes, images of the Virgin Mary and saints, and altars. Up until that time the church was the church of the bishop and the cathedral of the Diocese of Basel. After the attack, the church became the main building for the Protestants in the city of Basel and it has remained that way to present. From 1648, under the Treaty of Westphalia, until 1848, what is now Switzerland was composed of cantons, each of which was a sovereign state with its own border, currency and army. Basel City was a canton. In 1848, the federal state of Switzerland was established, with each canton becoming a member state.  Each canton already had its own Reformed Protestant church. In 1920, these churches joined together to establish the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches which serves as a legal umbrella, but organizationally, the churches remain separate units. Together, they are commonly referred to as the Swiss Reformed Church.

Now that the cathedral is Protestant, it is much more simple than a Catholic cathedral. From the back, looking toward the front.

Looking toward the back and the organ.

Beautiful arches.

The altar. We entered on a Sunday, just as a service was ending.

There are beautiful stained glass windows. Jesus and John the Baptist?

Jesus, in his red robes, returns for his second coming, heralded by trumpets.

Moses and Jesus?

I particularly love the ones showing medieval dress.

Behind the altar, in what I believe may be the crypt, were some beautiful frescoes on the ceiling that look very old.

After the Council of Basel, Basel became important in the intellectual life of late medieval Europe. The first university in Switzerland was founded in Basel in 1459. Scholars from all over Europe came to live and work there. One was the Dutch humanist, Desiderius Erasmus, who died in 1536 in Basel and was buried in the cathedral. Another was the mathematician, Jacob Bernoulli.


We took the stairs up into the right tower, Martinsturm. The most fun church stairs I've climbed. We wound up and around, through doors, and around the outside of the building, in places so tight that you could hardly pass.

The views from the top were spectacular. A beautiful grassy courtyard.

The Rhine River just a short distance below. 

A beautiful roof of colored clay tiles 

in mosaic. 

A wonderful framed view of Georgsturm.

And my favorite embellishment, the gargoyles. The gargoyles are carved of stone and have a trough cut in the back to channel rainwater through the open mouth away from the side of the building to keep it from eroding the mortar.

The elongated shape gives greater distance to the water. 

They were representations of evil and scared some people into coming to church.

They also believed that their presence on the outside of the church encouraged evil spirits to move on because this church was already occupied.

St. Pancras or Highland Church - Leiden

The Highland Church, known as the Hooglandse Kerk in Dutch, but called that even in the church brochure written in English, and St. Pancras Church, is in Leiden, Netherlands. It is built in the form of a cross, but it is very difficult to see the cross without some real examination. The red entrance doors below are at the end of the right side of the cross bar. The bottom of the cross is to the left and the top of the cross is partly visible to the right.

The picture of Saint Pancras below is taken from the Citadel of Leiden, a fortress on a small hill erected in about 1150. It shows the building from a higher vantage point on the other side. The high, closest end, is the left side of the cross bar.

The next picture, also taken from the Citadel, shows the bottom of the cross, at the right side, with a tower jutting up from the bottom. Lower outer layers of red brick project out from the higher silver gray brick and roof.

The portion of the church that is the bottom of the cross blends in with the houses on the street and it is difficult to tell where the houses end and the church begins. The red door, just visible toward the right side, is the entrance at the bottom of the cross. 

House fronts connected to the church going up the right side of the bottom of the cross and under the right side of the cross bar. This is one of the unusual elements we found in Dutch churches: houses attached to the churches. I still don't have a good explanation for them.

The upper right side of the semi-rounded top of the cross. Note again, buildings connected to the church and obscuring the outlines of it.

The origins of St. Pancras began in 1314 when the bishop of Utrecht gave the people of the area permission to build their own church. The first structure was made of wood and was completed in nine months. A stone structure, to replace it, was started in 1377. Over the years, additions were made. In 1470, Pope Paul II put the church under his direct authority, exempting it from jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Utrecht. With the increased status, expansion of the structure began in 1480, continuing to 1535, which brought about the current form. A bronze plaque on the side of the church shows its dimensions at various stages.

In its heyday in the Middle Ages, it had 24 altars dedicated to 54 different saints. In 1525, there were discussions about making the Highland Church the third bishopric in the Netherlands, which would have made it a cathedral, but a church in Haarlem was named in its stead.  In August 1566 during the "beeldenstorm" (the "statue storm") Calvinist iconoclasts ransacked the church, destroying the furnishings, artworks and archives almost entirely. The organ, built in 1565, was also badly damaged. This was part of the Dutch Revolt against the militant religious policies of Roman Catholicism pushed by Philip II of Spain. Later, in 1572, St. Pancras was officially named a Protestant church. The Protestant rebels surged again, in 1574, and while Leiden was under siege by Spain, St. Pancras was used for grain storage which further damaged the interior. In 1582 the organ was repaired, then in 1629 it was moved from the chancel to the nave and then enlarged in 1637. On January 12, 1807, a ship carrying 369 barrels of black powder on a canal in the center of Leiden exploded. Over 227 houses were destroyed and 154 killed, with about 2,000 wounded. St. Pancras was badly damaged and its demolition was considered. The painting below, shows Louis Napoleon, King of the Netherlands, appointed by his brother (French Emperor Napoleon), in Leiden the day after the explosion, in rescue efforts. 

However, from 1840 to 1903 the church was rebuilt and restored. After World War II damage, the roofs and windows were repaired, and then it became apparent that a another complete restoration was required. That took place between 1950 and 1980, including restoration of the organ between 1970 and 1980.  

Of all the Protestant churches I've been to in Europe, I think Saint Pancras is the most stark. It is so large and cavernous inside, 

yet devoid of art and decoration, 

that it feels unfinished, hollow. 

It was obviously made to house great art and images and without them it almost has the feel of an empty warehouse. I normally love the simple Protestant churches, and this is an absolutely beautiful structure, but for me, this one does not work well. 

Saint Pancras of Rome was a Roman citizen who converted to Christianity and was beheaded in 304 at the age of 14 during the persecution of Diocletian, about nine years before Constantine issued the Edict of Milan.  He was brought before the authorities and asked to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods. He refused and Diocletian was impressed with his determination and promised him wealth and power. But Pancras still refused and Diocletian ordered him decapitated on the Via Aurelia. 

My favorite thing in the church was some art (I wish there was more of it): a series of three oil paintings which the artist painted while listening to radio coverage of the Hungarian Uprising in November 1956. A student demonstration in Budapest had led to the fall of the People's Republic of Hungary and the new government declared its intent to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and have free elections. After the Politburo indicated a willingness to withdraw Soviet troops, it reversed course and sent Soviet troops into Budapest and other parts of Hungary to crush the revolution. Over 2,500 Hungarians were killed and 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees. The first painting shows a man, woman and child in freezing cold, the woman barefoot, seeking refuge while the city burns behind them.

The second painting shows a television and newspaper with images of war and hunger. A clown cries, a man of science holds a dead owl, the symbol of wisdom, in his hands. A man with raised hands screams and next to him is a man in a German helmet with hands outstretched in the form of a cross. The Bible is opened to Matthew with verses predicting events in a troubled world and an image of Jesus sits on the television, on a red robe. Perhaps it is symbolic of the time before the second coming when Jesus will return in a red robe.

The third painting shows death playing a violin with broken strings. Above death is a white, heavenly, throne, perhaps also symbolizing that the end is near and the earth will be renewed.

Clockworks from 1607 that were restored in 2003.

A tombstone from the inside floor dating to 1688.

What appears to be another tombstone, this one on the side of a pillar.

The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries in Western Europe. About 23% of the people are Catholic (down from 40% in the 1970s) and 11% belong to the Protestant Church in the Netherlands or PKN (down from 60% in the early 20th century), about 1.8 million people. The PKN was formed in 2004 as a merger between the Dutch Reformed Church (which was about 8.5% of the population), the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (about 3.7% of the population) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (about .1% of the population).