Dom Our Lady and Saints Liborius and Kilian's Cathedral Paderborn / Germany description:The Our Ladies - Saint-Liborius and Saint-Kilian dom is the Paderborn bisdom's Cathedraal. It's a mix of late Romanesque and Gothic elements. This Dom church is 104 meters long, and the western tower is 93 meters heigh.
The church history goes far back here, to the Carolingian times. Pope Leo III was here in 799, and he brought some relics from Rome, which he lay at an altar for Saint-Stephanus.
You enter the cathedral via the 'Paradise Porch'. The statues in this porch date from the early 13th century. It a porch under semi-circular arch. Those statues stand on colons with Romanesque capitals.
Special about this dom are the side chapels added to the nave. Those were made by (paid and decorated by) rich families as some private chapels. They are mainly from the 14th century. To protect them against theft... there are closed by cast iron gates, often with great perspective drawings. From the middle of the 17th and in the 18th century, because taste got Baroque - there were redecorated in that new 'fashion'. You can find art work there from several important artists.
Maybe the most important piece of art in the cathedral is the Liborius shrine. The original reliquary got damaged in 1058 by a fire. In 1622 is was decided to replace it. This was finished in 1627 by Hans Krako.
The crypt under the high choir remains from the previous church building. It is current shape, it was already existing in 1100. It's one of the largest crypt's of it's kind in Germany. You find the graves there of several bishops and a remarkable grave stone.
In one of the lancet windows just under the point in the tracery, there is an interesting drawing of 3 chasing rabbits. See http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paderborner_Dom#/media/File:Paderborner_Dom_Dreihasenfenster.jpg for a grate picture of this Dreihasenfenster.
Also remarkable is Dietrich von Fürstenberg's mausoleum. it looks more like an altar. It was made by Heinrich Gröninger between 1616 and 1622 and can be considered as early Baroque.
The baptismal font (as such not remarkable - made in 1924) is surrounded by the 12 diciples. Half of them date from 1626 (Gerhard Gröninger), the other 6 were later replaced (by Dietrich Gröninger).
A quite detailed explanation (in German) you can find on http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paderborner_DomWikipedia_Paderborner_Dom
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