the choir. The chandeliers were created after the devastating fire of 1046, in which the cathedral of Altfrid and many nearby buildings in the Domhof were destroyed. Before this, a gold and silver wheel chandelier, gifted by Bernward of Hildesheim had hung in the nave. This earlier chandelier was definitely destroyed in the fire. The chandelier was thought to have been commissioned by Bishop Azelin after this fire, but according to a lost document from the 16th century his predecessor Thietmar of Hildesheim was the patron. It is not clear, in that case, how the chandelier survived the fire of 1046. From 1960, when the cathedral and the adjacent buildings were rebuilt, the chandelier hung in the church of St. Antonius, adjacent to the cloisters of the cathedral. After the completion of extensive restorations of the cathedral, reopened on 15 August 2014, and the conversion of St. Antonius to a part of the Cathedral museum, the Azelin chandelier was returned to the cathedral and placed again above the altar in the crossing, while the Hezilo chandelier, which hung there before, was returned to its original location in the nave. Literature Bernhard Gallistl: Bedeutung und Gebrauch der großen Lichterkrone im Hildesheimer Dom. In: Concilium medii aevi 12, 2009, S. 43–88, online: (German) (PDF; 2,9 MB). Retrieved 18 January 2012 Adolf Bertram, Geschichte des Bisthums Hildesheim, (German) vol. 1, Hildesheim 1899, p. 106. Christine Wulf: Die Inschriften der Stadt Hildesheim. (German) Wiesbaden 2003 (Die deutschen Inschriften 58). vol. 2. pp. 213–216. References Romanesque art Individual lamps Hildesheim Cathedral Medieval European metalwork objects