Eichstätt Cathedral

About

Eichstätt Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Willibald and Saint Salvator, is the cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Eichstätt, in the Bavarian city of Eichstätt in southern Germany. A first cathedral on the site goes back to the eighth century, when Saint Willibald, the Anglo-Saxon missionary, established the church here. The present, two-aisled building has its core in the eleventh century, and at 98 metres long, with its surrounding cloister and mortuary, is considered one of the most important medieval ensembles in Bavaria.

Willibald's tomb is preserved within the cathedral, anchoring the building as a place of pilgrimage as well as the diocesan church. A treasury and diocesan museum is attached to the cathedral, displaying its liturgical heritage.

The cathedral is noted for its remarkable peal of eighteen bells, among the largest collections in any German church. The bells are divided between the north and south towers and sounded in four separate groups. Two thirteenth-century bells in the south tower carry a distinctive 'rib bell' (Rippe) profile; the Frauenglocke of the early fourteenth century anchors the main peal. The Hallerin was cast by the Nuremberg master Hans Glockengießer in 1540, and the Magnificat bell dates from 1975. The Death Bell ('Klag') in the North Tower, early-fourteenth-century, is rung only at the death of a member of the cathedral community.

History

Saint Willibald, the Anglo-Saxon missionary who became Eichstätt's first bishop, founded a cathedral here in the eighth century as the seat of the diocese he had helped establish. Bishop Gundekar II consecrated a Romanesque rebuilding in 1060, and a second consecration followed in 1210 under Bishop Hartwig as the cathedral took on the Gothic form that still stands, a two-aisled nave ninety-eight metres long with its cloister and mortuary chapel beside it. A comprehensive restoration begun in 2019 was completed in October 2024, and the cathedral, its Pappenheimer Altar and its Buchenhüller Madonna among the works it shelters, is open to visitors once again.

Significance

Saint Willibald's tomb within the cathedral has made it a place of pilgrimage as well as the mother church of the diocese, drawing the faithful each July for the Willibaldswoche, a week of pilgrimage and prayer around his feast day. The cathedral's eighteen bells, rung in four separate groups from its twin towers, are among the largest such collections in any German church, and its attached Cathedral Treasury and Diocesan Museum keeps the wider liturgical heritage of the diocese Saint Willibald founded.

Architecture

Romanesque origins (1060) rebuilt in Gothic form (consecrated 1210); two-aisled nave with cloister and mortuary chapel