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Stephen A. Schwarzman Building > Collections & Reading Rooms > Dorot Jewish Division > Yizkor Books About Yizkor (Memorial) Books Zoom-in Unsern lieben Frauen (the Frauenkirche, or, Church of Our Lady) Georg Kallenbach, Chronologie der deutsch-mittelalterlichen Baukunst, Munich, 1855 General Research Division, NYPL Commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, construction of Nuremberg's Frauenkirche began in 1355. Completed in 1360, it was so much admired that it created a regional preference for "barn"-shaped churches over the standard cruciform model. The Bavarian barn church, however, is a bit of a misnomer. "Synagogue church" might be more to the point, the innovative simplicity of the design being a function of the symbolic decision to build a church dedicated to Mary on the foundations of the razed house of worship of the city's banished Jewish community. Ironically, the time would come when it was regarded as one of the most perfect examples of everything that was supremely German. |