Schleswig's cathedral is a Gothic pile of red brick that took several centuries to complete, and the result is imposing rather than graceful. But step inside and the Bordesholmer Altarpiece stops you cold. Carved by Hans Brüggemann between 1514 and 1521, it depicts nearly 400 figures across multiple tiers — one of the most detailed and technically ambitious pieces of late-Gothic woodcarving in existence. It was commissioned for a monastery in Bordesholm and moved here in 1666 when the monastery dissolved. The cloister garden is a calm spot.
Dom St. Petri
Gothic cathedral with extraordinary Brüggemann altarpiece
A story
Hans Brüggemann carved the altarpiece for the Augustinian monastery at Bordesholm, not for Schleswig Cathedral. When the monastery dissolved in 1666, the altarpiece was dismantled and transported piece by piece to the Dom, where it has stood ever since. The carvings depict 392 individual figures — no two faces alike — all completed by one craftsman and his small workshop over seven years.