Such a gorgeous, detailed, and artistic door and knocker! This lion’s head knocker is on the door of Cologne Cathedral, in Koln in Germany. It is far from the cathedral’s only feature though – the whole building has a history spanning the hundreds of years it took to build it, its ravages in several wars, and the illustrious contributors to the cathedral’s architecture.

There are plenty of lions head knockers in our range, but this one stands out for its size, firstly. It is among the three largest cathedrals in the world, it has a bell which weighs 3.8 tonnes, and quires engineered to be as large as possible while barely avoiding collapse … so you won’t be knocking the knocker with your thumb and forefinger! Unfortunately, you probably won’t get a chance to knock it at all, since it is on a door which is nearly always open. You may have to make an excuse for an urgent visit at 3 o’clock in the morning, just so you have an excuse! And given its size, you could hardly just give it a surreptitious little test on your way in, walking through the door. The boom would probably call priests out of their private chambers!

It looks as if the knocker, at least, is made of polished brass or bronze – given the colour that the wear on the lion’s nose and on the handle are. Brass would have been a common and obtainable metal since the current cathedral started being built in 1248. It is doubtful whether the entire door would be made of brass… it would likely be made of a stronger metal, with the brass coloured to match. The detail on the door is amazing nonetheless. Remember that modern tools and techniques for metalworking make things relatively easy and achievable, however, the door was not made in modern times!The lion has a gorgeous geometric mane, which incorporates fine detail and solid artistry. Each curl of his mane alternates
direction, and only at the section between his ears do the tendrils actually alternate lengths also. Part of the beauty comes from the lion’s doleful look – he looks as if he has just realised that his capture is inevitable, and what his fate will be – to spend eternity with a heavy brass ring in his mouth, serving the very beings he used to eat …!

The Cologne cathedral is a fascinating building all up – it has the largest twin quires in the world (the tall towers), with only one single-quired church being larger than either of Cologne’s. It’s architecture is relatively stable, being mostly Gothic style. It took over seven hundred years to build, with some breaks. There were also some setbacks in the building, as both Napoleon’s army, and aerial bombers in World War II damaged the building immensely. Despite this, it’s engineering meant that it survived collapse, despite being architecturally very similar to the Beauvais Cathedral in northern France which collapsed under its own steam – with no bombs to help it along! The internal architecture is part of the reason for this.

The cathedral is also believed to be home to the bones and clothes of the Three Wise Men, who brought gifts to the baby Jesus. They lay in a sarcophagus dated from the thirteenth century, but were discovered at the opening of the shrine in 1864.

So altogether, a fitting door and knocker for such a building with such a rich and varied history!

Photo credits: Lion by kuestenkind, Cologne Cathedral by Bernie32

          

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