St. Stephen’s Cathedral: The Church of Music
St. Stephens Cathedral is a famous church in Passau. Passau is a small town located in the lower Bavarian region of Germany. The city is also called as the “City of Three Rivers”. The cathedral has a baroque architecture, which is a kind of building style adopted in the Baroque era. The Baroque era started in the latter half of the 16th century in Italy. The Romans used new theatrical and rhetorical fashion along with their already existing vocabulary of the Renaissance architecture to construct such architectures. Usually, it was done to express the superiority of absolute state and the Catholic Church. The main characteristics of these architectures were a new form, dramatic intensity, shadows, and lights. The German name for St. Stephens Cathedral is Dom St. Stephen.
This Church is dedicated to a saint named Stephen or Stephan, who is traditionally idolized or worshiped as the first martyr or Protomartyr of Christianity. He was blamed for blasphemy and his trial was conducted by Jewish authorities. At the trial, he denounced the authorities by giving long speeches. Later he was stoned to death. Saul of Tarsus who later became a follower of Jesus, had witnessed the martyrdom. The book of New Testaments which spoke about the Acts of the Apostles is the only source of information about Stephan.
St. Stephen’s Cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Passau. This church is the main church of his dioceses. Diocese is a territorial unit which is administered by a bishop with the help of assistant bishops.
A lot of churches have been built on the current location of the cathedral since the year 730. The structure built prior to St. Stephen’s Cathedral was burnt to ashes in the year 1662 and only the gothic side in the east remains. It took around twenty five years to build the current Cathedral. The construction of this magnificent cathedral started around 1668 and was completed by 1693. The overall plan of the Cathedral was made by Carlo Lurago, an Italian architect. Giovanni Battista Carlone decorated the interiors, who was an Italian painter of the Baroque period and the frescos were done by Carpoforo Tencalla, who had introduced the style of Italian paintings with mythology as its subject in the 17th century.
Over the time, this Cathedral of Passau has acquired the largest musical outside the United States of America. For a matter of fact, it is the largest Cathedral organ in the world. The musical organ has seventeen thousand seven hundred and seventy-four pipes and two hundred and thirty-three registers, all this can be played in the gallery with general consoles consisting of five manual. The centerpiece is the main musical organ of the cathedral, which was built by Joseph Matthias Götz in the year 1733. Parts of the musical organ have their own electrical action or mechanical-action consoles that make it a total of six consoles. Every portion of the musical organ was made separately, and each organ has its own unique tone. Over the years more musical organs have been added to the cathedral.
The south and north towers of the cathedral consist of bell rooms which have around eight large bells. The heaviest, “Pummerin” (bell), weighing around seven thousand five hundred and fifty kilograms and cast in the year 1952 is hung in the south towers. The heaviest “Sturmerin” (bell) that weighs around five thousand three hundred kilograms cast in the year 1733 is hung in the southern tower too. The northern tower of the cathedral has the rest of the six bells. The six bells include: “Misericordia” that weighs around six thousand kilograms, “Predigerin”, the Choir bell was called “Elfuhrglocken”, and “Dignitar”. The 9th bell called the “Zeichenglocke” is hung near the door of the sacristy.