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Home The History of the Cologne Cathedral The Interior of the Cologne Cathedral ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The
Cologne Cathedral Treasury Museum
Kölner Dom
Schatzkammer Dom Schatzkammer
The Cologne Cathedral
in Germany possesses a significant collection of religious treasures,
the origins of which reach back into the 10th century. This
collection of sacred objects has been built up both by the Cathedral's
active acquisition of reliquaries, the day to day purchase of
ceremonial vessels, robes, and books for worship over the centuries,
and by the gifts of insignia from archbishops and Cathedral ministers,
and is therefore closely connected to the Cathedral's history.
![]() On October 21, 2000, the treasury was reopened
in converted underground
vaults originally built in the 13th century on the north side of the
cathedral -- that is the side facing the train station.
Divided among six exhibition rooms in total (5000 ft.²), the
wealth of the cathedral treasury is now appropriately displayed for the
first time. The "sacred chamber" on the ground floor includes
the cathedral's most important relics and wooden reliquaries from
around the year 1300. The most significant pieces are the
baroque shrine of St. Engelbert (1633) and St. Peter's crosier,
the cathedral's foremost relic before the arrival of the bones of the
Three Magi. At the center of the new treasury is a
thirty-two foot high medieval vaulted room, which today is split
horizontally by a second vault. This lies beneath the former
sacristy of the Gothic cathedral (consecrated by Albertus Magnus in
1277); today's chapel of the Holy Sacrament. Gathered on the
upper floor are ceremonial vessels and insignia of exceptionally high
quality; for example, a Gothic bishop's crosier (circa 1322) and
Electoral Sword -- signs of the Cologne archbishop's spiritual and
secular authority -- as well as a Gothic monstrance (a vessel for
holding the Holy Sacrament) from around 1400, medieval processional
crosses, baroque ivory crosses, and a great number of liturgical
vessels and bishops' insignia from the 18th and 19th centuries. At the lowest level of the sacristy basement can
be seeing a selection of the ceremonial robes the cathedral owns and
further liturgical vessels and insignia, which clarify and explain how
the garments and accessories are involved in religious
ceremony. What is called"the library" primarily contains
manuscripts from the ancient cathedral library, but also shows smaller
exhibitions. The anteroom, containing the original wooden
construction from the shrine of the Three Magi, is devoted to the
history of the adoration of the Magi. In the lapidarium are
several medieval sculptures from the cathedral depot as well as the
most notable finds from two sixth century Frankish graves. The ancient vaults show remains of the Roman
city wall and columns from previous cathedral buildings on the
site. This imposing architecture and the structures built
more recently, together with a new way the treasury is now presented,
enables the cathedral's colorful history to come, powerfully, life.Home |
![]() ![]() The entrance to treasury museum
(and the cathedral gift shop) is hidden behind this pillar, between the Madonna and the Gero Crucifix. ![]() The small Cathedral gift shop ![]() |