Day 5 Paderborn

 

PADERBORN

To get the most out of a short holiday it is best to visit a town or place on the way home which one has never visited before and make it an extra holiday. For us it was Paderborn, just an hour’s drive North of Brilon. It took us some time to find our way into the center within the city walls, as our satnav stopped at a critical point. However, once there we were very pleasantly surprised.

Our first view of the "Dom"

Paderborn has a cathedral (Dom), but apart from that many interesting churches, a University and a beautiful park with a cluster of streams, formed by 200 springs which together form the source of the river Pader, the shortest river in Germany. The park is attractive, with its colourful flowerbeds, winding paths, bronze sculptures, seats and park benches galore, and a wide choice of bridges across the various streams.

It was again a beautiful day, so we enjoyed coffee and cake on a terrace overlooking the Cathedral before exploring the town.

In the Cathedral, the Dom, a service was in progress for the schoolchildren who are starting a new year in this rather difficult time, with so many restrictions due to this pandemic. They were present with their parents. We decided to postpone our visit till later and started with the church opposite, an old Romanesque church with a very clean, sober and modern interior which emphasized the lines of the structure, the Gaukirche St Ulrich. 

One of the entrances to the Gaukirche

We wandered around the back of the Cathedral, past the busy entrance of a school, towards the Evangelische Lutheran Kirche Abdinghof, ignoring the big and important Museum in der Kaiserpfalz. Paderborn has several interesting museums, but we did not have enough time to visit them. Besides, the weather was too glorious to spend time inside. Our visit was just a superficial first impression.

The Abdinghof church of St Peter and St. Paul is also a Romanesque church, begun around 800-1000. From 1015 -1803 is was a Benedictine monastery. In 1803 the monastery was disbanded and became a barracks for the Prussians. It is now a church again, and most interesting with a crypt, and a chapel for the Abbot in one of the towers, which connected the monastery with the church.

Above: The Abbots chapel

The church with its two spires, towers over the park and source of the river Pader. The park looked very attractive on this warm day, with old and young enjoying it, the many streams giving it a very relaxing feel. Near one of the springs is a group of bronze sculptures, true to life, depicting the village scene as it once may have been, of women doing their laundry in the clear springs. They seem to have been doing that here till the nineteen fifties. It is a scene sometimes still seen in remote villages in Italy. Although perhaps hard work, gossiping together might have been one of the attractions and may have been a very good form of bonding.

Alas, we couldn’t stay long in the park, so we made our way up into the town again, to the Market Place where with the Town hall, another beautiful building. We could not go in, as their was a wedding party going on. Not far from the Town Hall we hit upon the Market Church, a former Jesuit Church and College, now part of the Theological Faculty of the University. The church with its splendid high altar is very impressive. But so are the adjoining buildings, with its various ornate entrances, fit for the Jesuits I think, who were never modest but proud, and of course learned. One can’t possibly overlook these buildings.

The Town Hall

The Market Church, formerly belonging to the Jesuits

The high altar of the Market Church

The ornate pulpit

Detail of the high altar

On our way to the Cathedral we came across this statue of a remarkable man

Last but not least we explored the Cathedral and the cloisters. It was now relatively empty, so we had time to look around. In the cloisters we found a very colourful memorial for the dead of WWII, quite unusual.

Paderborn Dom

One of the many side chapels

Crypt. The relics of St. Liborius are kept here

Amazing mosaics in the crypt 

The brightly coloured war memorial in the cloisters

Although there was a lot more to be seen, we had to leave. It was 5 o’clock and we still had a 3-hour drive ahead of us, and needed time for a meal as well. It took some time before we left the parking garage, as I stupidly tried to feed the machine with the wrong ticket. Till my friend pointed out where I might have left the correct one! You can’t imagine the relief when we found it. Can you imagine parking in any big city in Holland and paying just €7.50 for almost 6 hours?

A drink before leaving in a cafe behind one of many sculptures and fountains

Once in our own country again, we found a restaurant in a village I love and had a delicious al fresco meal of sea food, before setting out on the final leg of our trip. It was a worthy end to a surprising midweek.