One of the neat things to me about Basel Minster was the tombs that were present.
"Bischof" in German is "Bishop" .
"Ritter" is German for Knight.
"Graf" is the German equivalent of Count.
"Und andere" means "and others".
As near as I can tell, someone named Johannes died in the year A.D. 1300:
I was a little shocked in looking at this tomb to realize that this was the tomb of 16th Century Humanist Desiderius Erasumus. This was a pleasant surprise; I had completely forgotten he had died in Basel. Interestingly, even though he was a Roman Catholic, he was so respected that a funeral with Roman Catholic rites was given to him in Basel, a city that was becoming staunchly Protestant. In modern times, he is most remembered for his work In Praise of Folly.
Adalbero (Adalberto) II, founder of the cathedral:
I'm guessing the single dates are death dates(?) Fascinating bits of history there.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, I suspect so too. Given the age, birth dates may have been a bit hard to come by - especially if one was from elsewhere.
DeleteI just had a conversation with our priest about adding a wall for cremains at our church. I wasn't optimistic that it would be utilized because people would be leery about what happens to them when the church building goes away either by merger or by demolition. My mind is conditioned to longevity of a building not be a probability. It is fortunate that they didn't think that way over there back then and we are left with history everywhere.
ReplyDeleteEd - Interesting conversation. I suspect even 100 years ago you would not have had the same conversation, as the thought of a church been merged, sold, or demolished would never have occurred to anyone as a possibility. To your point it is quite probable now; in New Home 3.0 there are several buildings that were clearly churches that have been "repurposed".
DeleteBut yes, the history does take a hit because of that.