Christ blesses Adeloch (786-823 AD), Bishop of Strasbourg. Alsatian Romanesque sculpture created in the 12th century, long after Adeloch’s death, on the Bishop’s sarcophagus. This sarcophagus is now in the church which Adeloch founded, the Église Saint-Thomas, in Strasbourg, France.
Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, Grand Est, France: Christ blesses Adeloch, bishop of Strasbourg in the early 9th century, in a Romanesque sculptural detail of his sarcophagus, which was commissioned by monks centuries after his death and now rests in the church he founded in the city, the Église Saint-Thomas. The carvings on the sandstone sarcophagus, dated to around 1130 to 1144, are regarded as gems of Alsatian Romanesque art. They are attributed to an artist identified only as the Master of Eschau, whose name derives from the sculptured cloister capitals and baptismal font at the Church of St Trophimus in Eschau, Bas-Rhin, a few miles south of Strasbourg. The sarcophagus is said to have been commissioned by monks grateful for Adeloch’s revival of their monastery. It rests on crouching lions and the carvings on its sides include a depiction of Adeloch kneeling before Christ and an angel, a man fighting two dragons and a nereid or sea nymph astride a fish. Adeloch or Adelochus (786-823) replaced the original Benedictine church and convent dedicated to St Thomas on this site with a new church and monastery. It burned down in 1007 and again in 1144, but was twice rebuilt. The present Église Saint-Thomas was begun in 1196 and the interior was completed in the 14th century. It converted to Protestantism in 1524, and it now hosts the Lutheran congregation in Strasbourg, which has been predominantly Roman Catholic since the city was annexed by France in 1681.
Size: 3872px × 2592px
Location: Église Saint-Thomas, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, Grand Est, France.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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