Editing Brunswick Cathedral

{{more footnotes needed|date=March 2013}}
{{Infobox church
| denomination = [[Lutheran]]
| name = Brunswick Cathedral
| fullname = Collegiate Church of Saint Blaise and Saint John the Baptist
| image = BraunschweigDom.jpg
| caption = 
| coordinates = 
| location = [[Braunschweig]], [[Lower Saxony]], Germany
| previous denomination = [[Roman Catholic]]
| dedication = [[Saint Blaise]], [[John the Baptist]] and [[Thomas Becket]] 
| consecrated date = 29 December 1226
| style = [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] 
| years built = 1173–1195
}}

'''Brunswick Cathedral''' ({{langx|de|Dom St. Blasii (et Johannis)}}, lit. in {{langx|en|Collegiate Church of Ss. [[St. Blaise|Blaise]] and [[John the Baptist]]}}) is a large [[Lutheran]] [[Church (building)|church]] in the City of [[Braunschweig]] (Brunswick), Germany.

The church is termed ''[[Duomo|Dom]]'', in German a [[synecdoche]] - pars pro toto - used for cathedrals and collegiate churches alike, and much like the Italian ''[[duomo]]''. It is currently owned and used by a congregation of the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick|Lutheran Church in Brunswick]].

==History==
[[Henry the Lion]] established the original foundation as a [[collegiate church]], built between 1173 and 1195. Among the most important pieces on display in the church are a wooden [[crucifix]] by Master [[Imervard]] dating from the second half of the 12th century and one of very few huge [[bronze]] [[candlestick]]s with seven arms, dating from around the 1170s.

The construction of the church was disrupted several times during the various exiles of Henry the Lion, so that he and his consort [[Matilda, Duchess of Saxony]], were both buried in an unfinished church. The [[limestone]] statues of them on their [[tomb]] in the [[nave]] are an idealised representation made a generation after their death, between 1230 and 1240. The cathedral was consecrated on 29 December 1226, dedicated to Saints [[Saint Blaise|Blaise]], [[John the Baptist]] and [[Thomas Becket]]. In 1543, at the time of the [[Protestant Reformation]], the City of Brunswick, in opposition to [[Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg|Duke Henry V of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]], joined the [[Schmalkaldic League]], and the church came into  [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] use. Its [[College (canon law)|college]] was dissolved.

Until 1671, the cathedral held a medieval collection of ecclesiastical relics that later became known as the Welfenschatz. In 2015, Germany declared 42 pieces of the Welfenschatz a national treasure, designating them as the [[Guelph Treasure]]. These relics are maintained by a foundation known as the [[Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz]] (SPK), and displayed at the [[Bode-Museum]] in Berlin. The cathedral lost possession of the collection in 1671 when the relics were removed by [[John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg|John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Prince of Calenberg]]. Until 1803, a portion was housed at the court chapel at [[Hanover]]. In 1929, 82 relics were sold by [[Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick]] to a consortium of German-Jewish art dealers. They in turn sold 40 pieces to mostly private collectors, except for nine that went to the [[Cleveland Museum of Art]]. The remaining 42 pieces were sold as a group in 1935. After the collection's designation as a national treasure in 2015, heirs of the art dealers brought common lawsuit(s) against Germany in U.S. courts in an attempt to recover perceived losses resulting from the 1935 sale. Germany's motion to dismiss on the basis of jurisdiction and conflicts with the [[Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act]] was denied once, then again in an appeal. Germany sought intervention by the [[US Supreme Court]]. The Supreme Court heard the case (FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY ET AL. v. PHILIPP ET AL) in October 2020 and issued on 3 February 2021, an order that vacated and remanded the case back to US District Court.<ref>[https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-351_o7jp.pdf "FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY ET AL. v. PHILIPP ET AL., Syllabus No. 19–351, February 3, 2021, US Supreme Court, CJ Roberts, delivered opinion for a unanimous Court"]</ref>

The cathedral is the burial place of [[Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor]] (1175/76-1218) and [[Caroline of Brunswick]], Queen Consort of [[George IV of the United Kingdom]].

==Burials==
*[[Henry the Lion]] (1129–1195)
**[[Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony]] (1156–1189), his wife
*[[Egbert II, Margrave of Meissen]] (1060–1090)
**[[Gertrude of Brunswick]] (1060–1117), his sister
*[[Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor]] (1175/76-1218)
**[[Empress Beatrice of Hohenstaufen]] (1198–1212), his wife
*[[Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg]] (1671–1735)
**[[Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen]] (1671–1747), his wife
*[[Ferdinand Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg]] (1636–1687),
**[[Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg]] (1680–1735), his son, Duke Louis Rudolph's son-in-law and successor
***[[Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]] (1713–1780), his son
***[[Duke Louis Ernest of Brunswick-Lüneburg]] (1718–1788), his brother, Captain-General of the [[Dutch Republic]] from 1750 to 1766
***[[Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick]] (1721–1792), his brother, [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] field marshal from 1758 to 1766
****[[Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick]] (1735–1806), Charles' I son, killed at the [[Battle of Jena-Auerstedt]]
*****[[Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]] (1771–1815), his son, the [[Black Brunswickers|Black Duke]], killed at the [[Battle of Quatre Bras]]
******[[William, Duke of Brunswick]] (1806–1884), his son, last descendant of the House of [[Brunswick-Bevern]]
* [[Caroline of Brunswick|Caroline, Queen of the United Kingdom]] (Consort of George IV.)

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:20190501_BraunschweigerDom_SouthWest_DSC08198_PtrQs.jpg|South side
Image:20170912_BraunschweigerDom_Westwerk_DSC05563_PtrQs.JPG|Westwork
Image:20190501_BraunschweigerDom_Nave_DSC08135_PtrQs.jpg|Central aisle
Image:20190501_BraunschweigerDom_Menora_DSC08178-2_ISO_PtrQs.jpg|Romanesque candelabra
Image:Braunschweiger Dom Marienaltar.jpg|Our Lady's Altar (1188)
Image:BraunschweigerDom_Vierung_WB2485_DSC00065_PtrQs.jpg|Secco Paintings in the Crossing
Image:20171014_BraunschweigerDom_ChristusPantocrator_DSC06494-2_PtrQs.jpg|Secco paintings ([[Christ Pantocrator]])
Image:Braunschweiger Dom Secco Malereien Becket.jpg|Martyrdom of [[Thomas Becket]], frescoes in Brunswick Cathedral
Image:Braunschweiger Dom Krypta Heinrichs des Loewen (2012).JPG|Crypt of Henry the Lion
Image:BS Dom Krypta.JPG|Crypt
Image:BraunschweigerDom_ImervardKreuz_DSC00069.jpg|Imervard's Crucifix
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Guelph Treasure]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Brunswick Cathedral}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100711032923/http://www.braunschweigerdom.de/dom/layout_storage/index_en.php Official site of Brunswick Cathedral (in English)]

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[[Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1195]]
[[Category:Churches completed in the 1190s]]
[[Category:12th-century churches in Germany]]
[[Category:Lutheran cathedrals in Germany]]
[[Category:Churches in Braunschweig|Cathedral]]
[[Category:History of Brunswick|Cathedral]]
[[Category:Former collegiate churches in Germany]]
[[Category:Lutheran churches converted from Roman Catholicism]]
[[Category:Romanesque architecture in Germany]]
[[Category:Burial sites of the Brunonids]]
[[Category:Lutheran churches in Lower Saxony|Brunswick CollegiateChurch]]
[[Category:Caroline of Brunswick]]
[[Category:Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor]]