Essen Minster

Essen Minster
The Cathedral of Our Lady, St Cosmas and St Damien
Essener Münster
Essen Minster, southern side
51°27′21″N 7°00′49″E / 51.45597°N 7.01373°E / 51.45597; 7.01373Coordinates: 51°27′21″N 7°00′49″E / 51.45597°N 7.01373°E / 51.45597; 7.01373
Location	Essen
Country	Germany
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Website	Website of the Cathedral
History
Founded	845
Dedication	8 July 1316
Architecture
Status	Active
Functional status	Cathedral and Collegiate Church
Administration
Diocese	Diocese of Essen
Clergy
Bishop(s)	Franz-Josef Overbeck

Essen Minster (German: Essener Münster), since 1958 also Essen Cathedral (Essener Dom) is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Essen, the "Diocese of the Ruhr", founded in 1958. The church, dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian and the Blessed Virgin Mary, stands on the Burgplatz in the centre of the city of Essen, Germany.

The minster was formerly the collegiate church of Essen Abbey, founded in about 845 by Altfrid, Bishop of Hildesheim, around which the city of Essen grew up. The present building, which was reconstructed after its destruction in World War II, is a Gothic hall church, built after 1275 in light-coloured sandstone. The octagonal westwork and the crypt are survivors of the Ottonian pre-Romanesque building that once stood here. The separate Church of St. Johann Baptist stands at the west end of the minster, connected to the westwork by a short atrium – it was formerly the parish church of the abbey's subjects. To the north of the minster is a cloister that once served the abbey.

Essen Minster is noted for its treasury (Domschatz), which among other treasures contains the Golden Madonna, the oldest fully sculptural figure of Mary north of the Alps.

From the foundation of the first church until 1803, Essen Minster was the Abbey church of Essen Abbey and the hub of abbey life. The church was neither a parish church, nor a cathedral church, but primarily served the nuns of the abbey. Its position was therefore comparable to a convent church, but a more worldly version, since the nuns at Essen did not obey the Benedictine Rule, but the Institutio sanctimonialium the canonical rule for female monastic communities, issued in 816 by the Aachen Synod. The canonical hours and masses of the order occurred in the Minster, as well as prayers for deceased members of the community, the noble sponsors of the order and their ancestors.