Xanten Cathedral

The cathedral owes its name to Victor of Xanten, a member of the Theban Legion who was supposedly executed in the 4th century in the amphitheater of Castra Vetera for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods.

This Roman camp is near today's town of Birten. According to legend, Helena of Constantinople recovered the bones of Victor and his legion and erected a chapel in their honour. During a modern excavation the existence of a 4th-century cella memoriae was discovered; however, it was determined that it had not been erected for Victor but for two other male corpses that were placed in the crypt at a later date.

The cornerstone of the cathedral was laid in 1263 by Friedrich and Konrad von Hochstaden. Construction lasted 281 years and was finally finished with the dedication of the Holy Spirit Chapel in the year 1544.

The cathedral contains a five-aisle nave built in the Gothic style. Along with the monasterial library of the Cathedral houses one of the most important religious libraries of the Lower Rhine. The cathedral was formerly in possession of Jan van der Heyden's painting, View of a Dutch Square. The painting had been looted by the Nazis from the original owners, the German Jews Gottlieb and Mathilde Kraus.

The Bavarian State sold the painting in 1962 to Henriette Hoffmann-von Schirach, a secretary to Adolf Hitler. The painting was purchased by the cathedral in 1963 at an auction in Cologne. In 2019, after eight years of negotiations, ownership of the painting was returned to the descendants of Gottlieb and Mathilde Kraus in recognition of the Nazi injustice.

Read More