Dortmund - St.-Petri

Local tradition knows that Dortmund was founded by Charlemagne in the course of the Saxon Wars. The first written mention of "Throtmanni" dates back to 882. In 1152, a court day was held in Dortmund under King Frederick Barbarossa. Craftsmen and merchants settled and so Dortmund developed into a city. A fire in 1232 almost completely destroyed the town. The fire also caused the loss of the town's archives and with them all documents from the time before the fire. Dortmund's privileges, which had been lost in the fire, were renewed by Frederick II in 1236.

In 1293 the city was granted the brewing right and unprecedented development of the beer industry within the city began. In 1389, Dortmund survived the "Great Dortmund Feud" against the Count of the Mark and the Archbishop of Cologne. However, an economic decline was initiated. This process was continued and intensified by the Thirty Years' War and led to the city's decline, with the population falling to 4500 by 1793. Dortmund became an exclave of the Principality of Orange-Nassau. In 1808 Dortmund became part of the Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Berg. After the Prussian victory over Napoleon, Dortmund fell to the Prussian province of Westphalia in 1815. From the mid of 19th century, Dortmund's renewed rise and transformation into an industrial city began due to coal mining and steel processing. Since the opening of the railroad in 1847, Dortmund became a transportation hub in the Ruhr region. Another contribution to development came in 1899 with the opening of the Dortmund-Ems Canal. This infrastructure paved Dortmund's way to becoming a major city. The city grew beyond the narrow confines of the medieval ramparts.

By the outbreak of WWII, the townscape had changed from a farming town to a metropolitan appearance. During WWII, more than 100 air raids destroyed more than 90 percent of the city, including its historic churches. Reconstruction proceeded quickly, and by 1950 the city had 500,000 inhabitants.

Today, with about 590,000 inhabitants, Dortmund is part of the "Ruhr district", a polycentric urban area. With a population of over 5 million, it is the largest urban area in Germany.

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Petrikirche is another medieval church in the center of Dortmund. The three-bay building was begun in 1322 and is executed in light sandstone. It was destroyed and rebuilt twice. In 1772 the over 100m high tower collapsed and crushed the church, and in WWII it was destroyed by bombs. Reconstruction lasted until 1981.

The "Golden Miracle of Westphalia" is an Antwerp retable from 1521. This carved altar is considered the largest surviving Antwerp altar.

It is 5.65 meters high and 7.40 meters wide with the wing doors open. The retable is equipped with two pairs of wings, the interior of which is also carved in plastic on the inside.

The altar was originally commissioned by the Franciscans of Dortmund from Jan Gillisz Wrage in Antwerp for their monastery church. After the abolition of the monastery in the course of secularization, the parish of St. Peter bought the altar and brought it into their church. During WWII the altar was removed from storage and returned to Dortmund in 1954. Here it was initially housed in a makeshift church, as the Petrikirche was not available due to war-related damage. From the beginning of the 1960s, the altar was restored in St. Peter's Church and re-installed in 1985.