page_title: Bremen Cathedral
section_title: Early buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Bremen Cathedral / History / Early buildings
caption_attribution_description: Western facade of Brenen Cathedral before the great relaunch of 1888 ff.
context_page_description: Bremen Cathedral, dedicated to St. Peter, is a church situated in the market square in the center of Bremen, in northern Germany. The cathedral belongs to the Bremian Evangelical Church, a member of the Protestant umbrella organization named Evangelical Church in Germany. It is the previous cathedral of the former Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. Since 1973, it is protected by the monument protection act.
context_section_description: The first church structure that can be verified on the site of St Peter's Cathedral in Bremen was a timber church on a high point overseeing the Weser River built by Saint Willehad, an early missionary to the Frisians. The church was built about 789 in conjunction with the creation of the Diocese of Bremen, with Willehad as the first bishop. Willehad died the same year.
  Just three years later Saxons attacked and burned Bremen and its tiny timber cathedral. No trace of it remains. The see remained vacant for thirteen years until it was reestablished under Bishop Willerich in 805. St Peter's was built as the cathedral church of local sandstone in several stages by Bishop Willerich.
  After the sack of Hamburg by the Danes in 845, Bremen became the seat of the combined Bremen and Hamburg Archdiocese under Archbishop Saint Ansgar who held the see from 848 to his death in 865. He was one of the most prominent missionaries to northern Europe and is credited with the beginnings of the conversion of the Danes and Swedes to Christianity. He was succeeded by Archbishop Rimbert.
  It is believed that during Ansgar's time the cathedral had a central nave and two side aisles with a choir at each end of the nave, a typical Carolingian church form. There was a cathedral school and cloister.
  Early in the tenure of Archbishop Adalbrand (1035-1043) the church was in the process of being rebuilt and enlarged, but in 1041 most of Bremen including the cathedral was destroyed by a terrible fire. The fire also destroyed much of the cathedral library. Bishop Adalbrand ordered the building rebuilt in 1042, but died before it could be completed.
caption: Bremen Cathedral in 1880, the collapsed southern belfry is hidden behind the stock exchange
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