St. Martin Chuch Cochem

 

St. Martin Roman Catholic Church

The ancient and romantic town of Cochem is situated in the most beautiful part of the Moselle Valley. While strolling through the town, prior to heading up to Reichsburg Castle, we noticed St. Martin Church in the heart of the market area. From the exterior, one could tell that there were some amazing stained glass windows decorating the church.

While I returned to the ship, my husband walked back to the church and captured some images of the interior.  We hope that you enjoy these images.  We'd highly recommend including the interior of the church to your visit of Cochem.

click images to enlarge

This church is one of the three Roman Catholic churches built inside the city.

The church is situated by the market. The church has a turbulent history. The current old choir stand was first mentioned in 1593. Between 1932-1933 a new nave was built, but it was destroyed by bombing in 1945. In 1950/1951 the nave was rebuilt again.

The interior of the church is quite plain, with the exception of these magnificent statues and stained glass windows.

Additional photos can be found on our Rhine & Moselle Shutterfly page:

Cochem - St Martin

Our visit to Cochem was on day eight of our 13-day river cruise on Avalon Artistry II.   If you are just joining us, be sure to review our previous posts.

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Notre-Dame Cathedral Luxembourg

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Cathedral of Notre-Dame

Notre-Dame Cathedral is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It was originally a Jesuit church, and its cornerstone was laid in 1613. It is the only
cathedral in Luxembourg.

The church is a noteworthy example of late gothic architecture; however, it also has many Renaissance elements and adornments. At the end of the 18th century, the church received the miraculous image of the Maria Consolatrix Afflictorum, the patron saint of both the city and the nation.

Around 50 years later, the church was consecrated as the Church of Our Lady and in 1870, it was elevated by Pope Pius IX to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.

The Towers 

The Cathedral has three towers, the west tower, which was the tower of the Jesuit church and which contains the bells, the east tower, and the central tower, which stands over the transept.

When the Cathedral was enlarged in 1935-1938, the east and central towers were added. The central tower, which is only a third of the height of the other towers, consists of a wide, pyramid-shaped base and a narrow peak covered with copper. The roof itself is carried by a steel frame, consisting of two PN20 beams from ARBED-Belval.


 

 Cathedral Repaired

On Good Friday, 5 April 1985, around mid-day, work on the roof caused the west tower to catch fire. The church bells, i.e. the Virgin Mary bell, the Willibrord bell, the Peter bell, and the Cunigunde bell were destroyed in the fire. When the tower collapsed, the roof of the central aisle was also partly damaged. It took until 17 October 1985 for the tower to be repaired.

The crypt of the Cathedral contains the remains of members of the Grand-Ducal family.  In particular, John of Bohemia (1296–1346), Marie-Adélaïde (1894–1924), Marie Anne of Portugal (1861–1942),  Felix of Bourbon-Parma (1893–1970),  Charlotte (1896–1985), and Joséphine Charlotte of Belgium (1927–2005) are buried in the crypt.

Additional photos can be found on our Rhine & Moselle Shutterfly page:
 

Luxembourg Notre-Dame

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Late Afternoon Tour of Mainz

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Home of the Printed Word

After all passengers returned from the morning excursion to Heidelberg, the Artistry II set sail for Mainz, Germany.  The schedule allowed for up to 2.5 hours of individual touring of the city.

Possibilities included a stroll thru the old town center, a visit to the Gutenberg Museum, shopping, or our choice of visiting the Church of St. Stephen with its stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall.

Strolling Thru Mainz

On Our Own

Johannes Gutenberg was born in early 1400s in Mainz, Germany. He would borrow money to setup a print shop and produce a 42-line Latin Bible. The process of using movable type in a cheap and efficient manner would change the world. The Gutenberg Museum, in the heart of the old town center, has an original copy of the famous bible. The museum was only open until 5 PM so we had to skip visiting it in order to get to the church before it closed for the evening.

Marc Chagall Windows

The highlight of our visit to Mainz, was our visit to the Church of St. Stephen (Stephan) where we saw the gorgeous stained-glass windows of Marc Chagall. 

The Chagall choir windows in St. Stephan are unique in Germany. Between 1978 and his death in 1985, Russian Jewish artist Marc Chagall created nine stained-glass windows of scriptural figures in luminous blue. The figures depict scenes from the Old Testament. 

 Cathedral (Dom)

Mainz Cathedral or St. Martin's Cathedral is located near the historical center and market square of the city.  Since it was only about a 20 minute walk back to our ship, we had decided to make that our final stop on our self-guided walking tour.

This 1000-year-old Roman Catholic cathedral is predominantly Romanesque in style, but later exterior additions over many centuries have resulted in the appearance of various architectural influences seen today.

Mainz is a very easy city to explore on foot.  If you only have a limited amount of time for exploration, like we did, we'd suggest picking one or more of the attractions mentioned here.

 
^{Additional photos can be found on our Rhine & Moselle Shutterfly page:}

Mainz - On Our Own
Mainz - St. Stephan
Mainz - Cathedral


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