St. Peter’s Church

St. Peter’s Church in Hamburg built by order of Pope Leo X, it has been a Protestant cathedral since the Reformation and its congregation forms part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany. The best known artworks in St Peter’s are the lion-head door handles, located in the left wing of the west portal. However, the cathedral contains many additional works of art. In the north portion of the cathedral, a Gothic mural from approximately 1460 shows the first bishop Ansgar of Bremen, with the words “Apostle of the North”. A column in the choir area contains a statue by Bernt Notke, from around 1480–1483, showing Archbishop Ansgar and the Hamburg Marienkirche, which he founded. From the 17th century, there are two oil paintings by Gottfried Libalt: Jacob’s Dream and Christ’s Birth. They were damaged by an acid attack in 1977, but were restored in October, 2001, and returned to the cathedral. The painting Christmas 1813 in St. Peter’s is on a column in the south part of the cathedral. It shows the Hamburg citizens who, when they did not provide food to Napoleon’s occupying troops, were locked in the church by the soldiers. In the front of the cathedral are neo-Gothic representations of the evangelists. A modern bronze sculpture by Fritz Fleer shows Dietrich Bonhoeffer dressed as a convict with his hands bound.