Bernward Doors

The Bernward Doors are the finest example of Ottonian metalwork in existence — two enormous bronze doors, each cast as a single piece and weighing around 1.85 tonnes, made around 1015 for Hildesheim Cathedral. Each leaf carries eight relief panels depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments, read from top to bottom on the left and right respectively, so that the two sides tell the story of the Fall and the Redemption in visual parallel.

The detail in the panels is extraordinary: figures emerge from the flat bronze surface in high relief, gesturing and interacting with an expressiveness that belies the formal, frontal conventions of the period. The doors now hang in the cathedral's north nave, where you can examine them closely. Together with the Bernward Column displayed nearby, they represent the high point of early medieval bronzework.

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A story
The Bernward Doors were cast in a single pour of bronze for each leaf — a technical achievement of extraordinary difficulty that was not repeated elsewhere in Europe for decades. Bishop Bernward, who commissioned them, was himself a skilled metalworker and is thought to have been directly involved in their design. He had them made for his own church, St. Michael's, but they were moved to the cathedral after his death.