Schleswig Cathedral

Schleswig Cathedral (German: Schleswiger Dom), (Danish: Slesvig Domkirke) officially the Cathedral of St. Peter at Schleswig (German: St. Petri-Dom zu Schleswig), is the main church of the city of Schleswig and was the cathedral of the Bishop of Schleswig until the diocese was dissolved in 1624. It is now a church of the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church, the seat of one of its bishops, and ranks among the most important architectural monuments of Schleswig-Holstein.

In 850 a missionary church was founded in Haithabu (Hedeby). Between 947 and 949 Otto I installed three dioceses on the Cimbrian peninsula: Ribe, Schleswig and in 948 Århus. After the foundation of the Schleswig diocese in 947, the first cathedral in Schleswig was built. Today, neither the size nor the location of this cathedral is known.

In 1134, construction of a new romanesque basilica began. The work was only completed around 1200, because an additional nave was constructed that can still be seen today. Construction materials included granite, tuff from the Rhine, and brick.

In 1134, the Danish King Niels' headless body was laid out in St. Peter's Cathedral after it was pulled from the Schlei in the nets of local fishermen. The monks who attended the corpse heard strange noises and thought that the spirit of King Niels was wandering about in the church. As a result the king's body was taken to Gottorp and stuffed into a boggy grave. Someone hammered a stake through Niels' chest to keep him there. Legend has it that King Niels still haunts the cathedral, and that he still hunts across the moors and forest of Schleswig with his hounds. King Frederick I of Denmark is entombed in the cathedral.

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