The Church of St. Sebald, located in the northern half of Nuremberg’s old town, is one of the two main churches in the city, along with St. Lawrence. Its most notable work of art is the Sebaldus sepulchre, created by Peter Vischer the Elder and his two sons between 1509 and 1519. The church also contains works by other noted Nuremberg sculptors, including Veit Stoss and Adam Kraft, and executed designs by Albrecht Dürer for “his parish church.”
The church’s foundation dates back to the 11th century when the legendary hermit Sebald supposedly built the Peter and Paul church in what is now the district of Fürth-Poppenreuth. After Sebald’s death, his grave became a site of miraculous cures, and the church was renamed in his honor. The original Peter chapel was replaced in the 13th century by a late Romanesque pillar basilica, which was later expanded and heightened in the Gothic style.
During World War II, the church’s roofs, chancel arch, and towers were largely destroyed, and the reconstruction process lasted for many years. Today, many unique works of art can be found both inside and outside the church, including the Schreyer-Landauer-Epitaph by Adam Kraft, the Loeffelholzaltar, and various glass paintings. The silver shrine of the Sebaldus sepulchre was twice forced open by thieves in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Diagonally across from the church is the Sebalder rectory with a very small Sebald choir and the last preserved medieval courtyard in Nuremberg. The northern square outside the church was once part of a surrounding church cemetery, known as the “Sebald graveyard.”
Posted by Josef Lex (El buen soldado Švejk) on 2010-05-17 15:07:38