Minden Cathedral, dedicated to Saints Gorgonius

Gorgonius

Saint Gorgonius of Nicomedia was a Christian martyr, part of the group Gorgonius, Peter Cubicularius and Dorotheus, who died in 304 AD at Nicomedia during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian....

 and Peter

Saint Peter

Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

, is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Minden

Minden

Minden is a town of about 83,000 inhabitants in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The town extends along both sides of the river Weser. It is the capital of the Kreis of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detmold. Minden is the historic political centre of the...

, North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. From the year 803 AD, when the area was conquered by Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

, it was the center of a diocese and subsequently became the center of a small sovereign state, a prince-bishopric (Hochstift

Hochstift

In the Holy Roman Empire the German term Hochstift was often used to denote the form of secular authority held by bishops ruling a prince-bishopric....

) of Minden

Bishopric of Minden

The Bishopric of Minden was a Roman Catholic diocese and a state, Prince-bishopric of Minden , of the Holy Roman Empire. Its capital was Minden which is in modern day Germany.-History:...

, until the time of the Peace of Westphalia

Peace of Westphalia

The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the...

 (1648), when Minden was secularized as the Principality of Minden (which lasted until 1806). Today the church belongs to the diocese of Paderborn.

Over the course of many centuries, the cathedral grew from a simple Carolingian

Carolingian architecture

Carolingian architecture is the style of north European Pre-Romanesque architecture belonging to the period of the Carolingian Renaissance of the late 8th and 9th centuries, when the Carolingian family dominated west European politics...

 church to a monumental basilica. The High Gothic nave and its large tracery windows inspired a number of other buildings. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the church was almost completely destroyed by an aerial bombing conducted by US Army Air Force B17

B17

B17 or B-17 may refer to:*B-17 Flying Fortress, an American World War II heavy bomber**B-17, Queen of the Skies, a solitaire board war-game**B-17 Bomber , a 1982 Mattel game made for the Intellivision console...

s on March 28, 1945. This almost completely destroyed the town center including the town hall and cathedral and resulted in the death of over 180 people.

The church was rebuilt in the 1950s by architect Werner March

Werner March

Werner Julius March was a German architect.He was born in Charlottenburg and died in Berlin.For the 1936 Summer Olympics in Germany, March created his most famous work, Berlin's Olympic Stadium...

. The church contains a number of valuable art treasures.

Patronage

From Rome in the 8th century the remains of St. Gorgonius were translated

Translation (relics)

In Christianity, the translation of relics is the removal of holy objects from one locality to another ; usually only the movement of the remains of the saint's body would be treated so formally, with secondary relics such as items of clothing treated with less ceremony...

 by Saint Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz

Chrodegang of Metz

Saint Chrodegang was the Frankish Bishop of Metz from 742 or 748 until his death.-Biography:He was born in the early eighth century at Hesbaye of a noble Frankish family that via his mother Landrada was related to the Robertians, and died at Metz, March 6, 766.He was educated at the court of...

 to the monastery of Gorze

Gorze Abbey

Gorze Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Gorze in the present arrondissement of Metz-Campagne, near Metz in Lorraine. It was prominent as the source of a monastic reform movement in the 930s.-History:...

 in Lorraine. Some of the relics were later translated to Minden Cathedral.