Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John in Schwerin

German Schwerin - the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - is called the city of lakes and arts. Located near Berlin, close to Rostock and Lubeck, this city is widely known for its romantic medieval castle, which was built four hundred years, starting in the fourteenth century, and was the seat of the Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg. Nevertheless, the main local attraction is the Lutheran Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John, towering over the city buildings and representing a real architectural masterpiece of European brick Gothic.

Schwerin is an old and at the same time relatively young city. And here's why: in the Middle Ages, many of its buildings burned down during a grand fire, and most of the buildings that can be seen today were erected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Schwerin Cathedral with Der Schweriner Dom St. Marien und St. Johannis is the only medieval church in the city that has survived to this day, as well as a local architectural dominant.
The first chronicle mention of the Schwerin Cathedral dates back to 1154. Then, on the site of the present cathedral, there was a Romanesque basilica - its central portal has survived to our time: it can be seen from the south nave.
And yet then, in the twelfth century, this church was one of many similar to it - there were also many in the Germanic principalities of the High Middle Ages. The rise of the Schwerin Cathedral - in the literal and figurative sense - is associated with the bringing into it sacred relics for Christians. In 1222, Count of Schwerin, returning from a crusade to the Holy Land, brought with him from Jerusalem a drop of the Lord's blood, enclosed in a stone. The shrine placed in the temple made it a kind of pilgrimage center, where pilgrims from all over Europe came to worship in winter and summer. And in 1260, another revered artifact appeared here: the thorn of the crown of thorns of Jesus Christ, which was given to the temple by King Ludwig IX.
As the number of pilgrims grew from year to year, and the donations they made grew, in 1270 it was decided to reconstruct the old basilica, building a new three-aisled Gothic style over it, with a choir and a crown of chapels. The inspiration for the builders was the Marienkirche - the Church of Our Lady in the city of Lübeck.
In four years, a new cathedral was erected. With a height of 29 and a length of 105 meters, the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John received a bypass gallery attached to its northern facade. Finally, in 1396, another great shrine was solemnly brought to the radically renovated temple - a particle of the Honest and Life-giving of the Cross of the Lord.
Centuries passed. By the grace of God, the cathedral survived the fires, one of which was especially disastrous for Schwerin - as well as during the turbulent times of religious wars. At the end of the nineteenth century, the tower of the cathedral was dismantled - and in its place in 1889-1992 a new one was erected, in the neo-Gothic style, designed by the architect Georg Daniel. Its height of 117.5 meters raised the spire of the cathedral, crowned with a cross, high above the city roofs. Schwerin Cathedral is considered to be the largest Hanseatic-style church in the Baltic.
In the northeastern chapel of the transept, consecrated in honor of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, parts of the painting of the fourteenth century have survived to this day - they were found during restoration in 1960. The medallions on the north side of the chapel, immediately noticeable to anyone entering, are the work of the craftsmen of the Lubeck school.
The interior of the Schwerin Cathedral is decorated with an altar of the late fifteenth century with the figures of the Savior, the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist, a bronze font from 1325, the Triumphal Cross from 1420, brought here from the church of Our Lady of Wismar that was blown up in 1961, as well as the largest organ created by the renowned master Friedrich Ladegast in 1871. But of the medieval bells that announced their ringing of the city and its surroundings in the old days, only two have survived to this day. - cast in 1363 and 1470 - all the rest in the First and Second World Wars were melted down.
In the northern chapel of the cathedral lie the remains of four Flanders bishops of the Bülow house (14th century). The headstones above each are decorated with expressive bronze engravings. In the eastern part of the south nave you can see the epitaph - also in bronze - of the Duchess of Mecklenburg Helena, by the Nuremberg foundry master Peter Fischer (1527). The majestic stained glass windows with New Testament themes in the tall Gothic windows are a special pride of Schwerin Cathedral.
In conclusion, we note that the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John acquired its modern appearance only in the eighties of the last century. Near the architectural masterpiece, which has almost nine hundred years of history, there is the artificial lake Pfaffenteich and the picturesque Market Square, which also deserve the attention of anyone who happens to be in Schwerin.

You can write a letter to God or light a candle in the temple .