Xanten Cathedral (german: Xantener Dom), sometimes called St. Victor's Cathedral (german: St.-Viktor-Dom), is a Roman Catholic church situated in

Xanten Xanten (, Low Rhenish: ''Santen'') is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the district of Wesel. Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open air museums in the wor ...

, a historic town in the lower Rhine area,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is considered the biggest cathedral between

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

and the sea. In 1936 it was declared a

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

by Pope

Pius XI Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City f ...

. Even though the church is called a cathedral, it has never been the seat of a bishop.

History

Xantener Dom, Hauptschiff Richtung Chor-9364

The cathedral owes its name to

Victor of Xanten Viktor of Xanten was a 4th century martyr and saint recognized by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Since the 12th century, his presumed bones have been kept in a shrine, which is embedded in the high altar of the Xanten ...

, a member of the

Theban Legion The Theban Legion (also known as the Martyrs of Agaunum) figures in Christian hagiography as a Roman legion from Egypt—"six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men"—who converted en masse to Christianity and were martyred together in 286, a ...

who was supposedly executed in the 4th century in the amphitheater of

Castra Vetera Xanten (, Low Rhenish: ''Santen'') is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the district of Wesel. Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open air museums in the wor ...

for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods. This Roman camp is near today's town of Birten. According to legend,

Helena of Constantinople Flavia Julia Helena ''Augusta'' (also known as Saint Helena and Helena of Constantinople, ; grc-gre, Ἑλένη, ''Helénē''; AD 246/248– c. 330) was an '' Augusta'' and Empress of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine th ...

recovered the bones of Victor and his legion and erected a chapel in their honour. During a modern excavation the existence of a 4th-century cella memoriae was discovered; however, it was determined that it had not been erected for Victor but for two other male corpses that were placed in the

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

at a later date. The cornerstone of the cathedral was laid in 1263 by Friedrich and

Konrad von Hochstaden Konrad von Hochstaden (or Conrad of Hochstadt) (1198/1205 – 18 September 1261) was Archbishop of Cologne from 1238 to 1261. Life Konrad was a son of Count Lothar of Hochstaden, Hochstadt, canon of St. Maria ad Gradus and of the old Cologne Cath ...

. Construction lasted 281 years and was finally finished with the dedication of the Holy Spirit Chapel (German: ''Heiliger-Geist-Kapelle'') in the year 1544. The cathedral contains a five-aisle nave built in the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style. In contrast to many other cathedrals of the period, St. Victor's lacks an

ambulatory The ambulatory ( la, ambulatorium, ‘walking place’) is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th ...

. Instead a twin pair of chapels is connected to the choir similar to that seen at the Church of Our Lady (German: ''Liebfrauenkirche'') in

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

. Along with the monasterial library of the cathedral houses one of the most important religious libraries of the

Lower Rhine The Lower Rhine (german: Niederrhein; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the river Rhine) flows from Bonn, Germany, to the North Sea at Hook of Holland, Netherlands (including the Nederrijn or "Nether Rhine" within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta); al ...

. The cathedral was formerly in possession of

Jan van der Heyden Jan van der Heyden (5 March 1637, Gorinchem – 28 March 1712, Amsterdam) was a Dutch Baroque-era painter, glass painter, draughtsman and printmaker. Van der Heyden was one of the first Dutch painters to specialize in townscapes and became ...

's painting, ''View of a Dutch Square''. The painting had been looted by the Nazis from the original owners, the

German Jews The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

Gottlieb and Mathilde Kraus. The Bavarian State sold the painting in 1962 to

Henriette Hoffmann-von Schirach Henriette "Henny" von Schirach ('' née'' Hoffmann; 3 February 1913 – 27 January 1992) was a German writer and wife to Baldur von Schirach, former ''Reichsjugendführer'' (Reich Youth Leader) and ''Gauleiter'' in Vienna. Henriette von Schirach ...

, a secretary to

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

. The painting was purchased by the cathedral in 1963 at an auction in Cologne. In 2019, after eight years of negotiations, ownership of the painting was returned to the descendants of Gottlieb and Mathilde Kraus "in recognition of the Nazi injustice."

Today

Today the cathedral is the seat of the auxiliary bishop

Heinrich Janssen Heinrich may refer to: People * Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...

who presides over the Lower Rhine part of the

Diocese of Münster In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

References

External links

St. Victor's Cathedral
Xanten tourism site *
St. Victor's Cathedral
- ''Official site'' *
Xantener Dombauverein
{{Authority control Antisemitism in Germany 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Germany Roman Catholic churches completed in 1544 Roman Catholic cathedrals in North Rhine-Westphalia Basilica churches in Germany Gothic architecture in Germany Buildings and structures in Wesel (district) Jewish German history Judensau 1544 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Xanten