thursday 15 december 1977
KÖLN. twelve noon and the angelus is said publicly in Köln cathedral while outside a small group of singers (two men, two women – one of whom plays a guitar) and a woman evangelist demonstrate their belief to those who are willing to stand and listen. the Dom. very tall. very slender. some pleasant coloured glass in the windows. an array of well-disciplined school children. a vast reliquary behind the high altar. sculptures poised on the columns of nave and chancel. I’m glad I stopped here. at last.
Hofbahnhof. not my favourite. no waiting room. nowhere to sit except on the open platforms. and today they are cold and cheerless.
thursday 15 december 2011
.. and now as I write I recall the day in 1980 when Lizzy and I climbed the spiral of 509 stone steps to the viewing platform at the top of the tower and looked out over the vastness of the city ..
The Hohe Domkirche St. Peter und Maria is, as every schoolboy knows, the home of some of the relics of the Three Kings of Orient who brought gifts to the babe in Bethlehem – except, as is perfectly clear to anyone who really reads and studies the Bible : the story is a work of early medieval imagination which in our time continues to create a mystical tableau carried down from Yesod to Malkuth.
francis cameron, oxford
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