St. Lorenz Audio Guide

St. Lorenz: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Saint Lorenz

   Welcome to Saint Lorenz, the Lorenzkirche, one of the great medieval churches of Nuremberg. It stands in the historic center of a city that was once a free imperial city. It is dedicated to Saint Lawrence, and today it is one of the most prominent churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. As you look up at it, you are looking at roughly two centuries of building. The story starts around 1250, and it carries through the Reformation and the Second World War. Along the way we will visit the façade and its twin towers, the late Gothic choir, the artworks that stayed in place when so many churches elsewhere were stripped, and the giant organ. Let's start by simply taking in the front of the church.

2. 02

   From Basilica to Hall Choir

   Building began about 1250. The church was first planned as a three-aisled basilica in the high Gothic style: a tall central nave flanked by lower side aisles. The nave was complete by around 1400, so you are looking at the work of generations of Nuremberg masons. Then the ambition grew. In 1439 work began on a new choir, built as a hall church in the late German style known as Sondergotik. In a hall church the aisles rise to the same height as the center, so the space feels open and unified rather than layered. That choir was finished in 1477, which means it took almost four decades. The result is a church of two distinct Gothic ages joined together, an early, restrained nave leading into a lofty, luminous late Gothic choir. Some accounts say the church's growth was spurred by rivalry with Saint Sebald, the other great church of the city. Either way, the wealth of Nuremberg's citizens is visible in every bay.

3. 03

   The Façade and Its Twin Towers

   Step back to the west front, because this is where Nuremberg chose to show off. The façade is richly articulated. A splendid portal, decorated with statuary, sits beneath a great rose window. Both date from the middle of the fourteenth century, and together they announce how wealthy the citizens of this city were. The front is dominated by two towers, one rising 80 meters and the other 81 meters. That is a difference of a single meter, so at a glance they look like perfect twins, and you may enjoy trying to tell them apart. Together with Saint Sebald and the Church of Our Lady, Saint Lorenz is counted among the three most important churches in Nuremberg. Take your time at the portal and look at the figures around it, since the carving rewards slow looking.

4. 04

   Reformation, War and Rescued Treasures

   Saint Lorenz was one of the first churches in Germany to turn Lutheran, in the mid 1520s. Accounts give the year as 1524 or 1525. You might expect the old altars and images to have been swept away, as happened in many places during the Reformation. Here, they were not. Much of the artwork had been donated by Nuremberg's citizens, and they wanted to preserve the memory of their ancestors. The city council decided to leave the works in the church, which is why the furnishings today still go back to the time before the Reformation. Then came the Second World War, when the church was badly damaged. The people of Nuremberg protected its treasures. Some pieces, such as the Annunciation by Veit Stoss, were stored in the city's Art Bunker, while others, such as the tabernacle, were protected inside the church itself. After the war the church was restored, and its late Gothic treasures and vaults are what you see today.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Saint Lorenz is also a place of music. Its three-part pipe organ is among the largest in the world, with 12,000 pipes and 165 registers. Even if you never hear it played, it is worth pausing to imagine the sound that organ can fill this space with. The church is fully wheelchair accessible, so everyone can step inside and explore. When you do, try a few things. Compare the calm nave with the soaring hall choir. Look for the artworks that survived both the Reformation and the war. Then turn back to the two towers and ask yourself which of them really is the taller. There is plenty more here to discover, from the carved details at the portal to the quiet corners of the choir.