Interdisciplinary conference 2022

On the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the inauguration of Bishop Godehard (1022-1038), the diocese of Hildesheim is planning a year of celebrations that will also radiate beyond the diocese borders. The Hornemann Institute of the HAWK in Hildesheim and the Klosterkammer Hannover are using this anniversary as an opportunity to organise, in cooperation with the diocese, an interdisciplinary conference on the former Benedictine monastery church of St. Godehard, which celebrates its 850th anniversary of consecration in 2022.

The church is one of the most interesting sacred buildings of the 12th century: "St. Godehard is one of the best-preserved and, in a technical sense, most uniform Romanesque churches in Germany," wrote Georg Dehio as early as 1912. It was also much noted in the 19th century: The art and cultural historian Jakob Burckhardt visited St. Godehard and was so fascinated by the building that he documented its architecture and furnishings in a series of sketches.

Even today, the history and furnishings of the building, as well as their cultural-historical classification, raise numerous questions. The conference will therefore review the history of the church and its important historical furnishings over the centuries, focusing on four aspects: The foundation of the monastery and the construction of the church in the 12th century, the transformations in the church and monastery in the course of the reforms in the 15th century and in the baroque, and its historicist redesign in the 19th century. In order to support interdisciplinarity, experts from various disciplines will be involved: Art history, (church) history, conservation and architecture.

Ort: HAWK, Dombibliothek Hildesheim
Zeit: 19th-21st September 2022

Further information on the conference

The conference proceedings have been published and can be ordered here.

Supported
- from the funds of the "Niedersächsisches Vorab"
- by the Diocese Hildesheim


Photo: St. Godehard from the southeast, photo: Bistum Hildesheim