Fascade Nurnberg Cathedral

Heinrich visited the city of Nurnberg in southern Germany. It's an old city with a huge and impressive cathedral or Dom. Heinrich learned that a long time ago most of the people weren't able to read. So if they were going to learn about Bible stories the church leaders needed to find a different way to teach them. They had Bible stories carved into the walls of the church to teach about Jesus.

 

In the front of the cathedral over the door is a large and intricate set of carvings. There were lots of people and images carved into the stone.

The bottom two panels teach about the birth of Jesus. The first half show the shepherds in the bottom left, the wise men in the middle bringing gifts and an angel with the star of Bethlehem over Mary. Above them is Baby Jesus with his mother Mary on a bed.

 

 

On the bottom right shows Jesus being baptised in the Temple and his flight into Egypt with his mother Mary on a donkey. Above these two scenes are the images of Herod's men hurting the babies in Bethlehem.

The section above teaches about the death and Resurrection of Christ.

Along the bottom are the events leading to the crucifixion. From left to right is Christ appearing before Pilate, the beating of Jesus, the soldiers pressing the crown on his head and Jesus carrying his cross to Calvary.

In the middle is an image of Jesus being crucified.

 

On the right hand lower panel are the events after the crucifixion. The body of Jesus being taking down from the cross, The anointing and burial of Jesus and finally Christ rising out of the tomb with the soldiers sleeping around him.

The top portion of the panel shows the triumphant Christ during the Last Judgement. Under him are the scenes of the Good and Bad receiving their awards.

The first part of the Judgement is the raising of the Dead. You can see them coming out of the graves.

The Good are on the left hand of the scene (and the right hand of Christ). St Peter is preparing to lead them to Heaven. In the carving Peter is see holding the keys of Heaven.

On the other side is the image of the bad people being led down to Hell. You can see the mouth of Hell like a big gaping monster swallowing up the damned.