ST STEPHEN’S CATHEDRAL
PASSAU, GERMANY
PAUL SCOTT
This plan is taken from the excellent Cathedral booklet. In this site, the order will be different, but the text letters will be included for guidance. The apse is skewed at a strange angle!
A brief history of the Cathedral is given below. However, if you want to begin your tour of the Cathedral immediately, tap / click on START . You can also access intermediate points in the tour by a tap / click on the following links:
NOTE ON MAGNIFYING IMAGES
With this website format the images are large enough for most purposes. If there is a need for greater magnification of an image, go to the identical photo on
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and use Command - + (Mac) or Windows - + (Windows).
HISTORY
[Wikipedia]
St. Stephen’s Cathedral (German: Dom St. Stephan) is a baroque church from 1688 in Passau, Germany, dedicated to Saint Stephen. It is the seat of the Catholic Bishop of Passau and the main church of his diocese.
Since 730, there have been many churches built on the site of the current Cathedral. The current church, a baroque building around 100 metres (328 ft) long, was built from 1668 to 1693 after a fire in 1662 destroyed its predecessor, of which only the late gothic eastern side remains. The overall plan of the Cathedral was made by Carlo Lurago, its interior decoration by Giovanni Battista Carlone, and its frescos by Carpoforo Tencalla.
The organ of Passau Cathedral used to be the largest organ in the world. It is still the largest church organ outside USA. Over time, it has been outgrown by more recent instruments, for instance Wanamaker’s organ in the USA. The Passau organ currently has 17,774 pipes and 233 registers, all of which can be played with the five-manual general console in the gallery. Portions of the organ have their own mechanical-action or electric-action consoles, for a total of six consoles.
The Cathedral has eight large bells in the bell rooms in the north and south towers. The heaviest,‘Pummerin’ at 7550 kg cast in 1952, and ‘Sturmerin’ weighing 5300 kg cast in 1733, hang in the south tower. The other six bells hang in the north tower. They include: ‘Misericordia’ weighing 6000 kg, the Angelus bell, ‘Predigerin’, ‘Elfuhrglocken’, the Choir bell, and ‘Dignitar’. A ninth bell, the ‘Zeichenglocke’ hangs near the sacristy door.
