Casting Monumental Bronzes in Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: The Doors of Hildesheim, Mainz, and Augsburg

Abstract The three metal doors from Mainz, Augsburg, and Hildesheim are considered the oldest among the European metal doors of the High Middle Ages (1000–1300 CE), belonging to the complex of 11th–12th centuries Central European metal doors, which have a more numerous equivalent in Italy. While the doors from Mainz and Hildesheim are solid metal casts, the door from Augsburg is among the first doors in Europe to consist of single metal panels mounted on a wooden base. For the first time, chemical analysis of all three doors allows a detailed reconstruction of the alloys used in their manufacture, enabling a direct comparison with each other, and providing a valuable contribution to the history of their construction: while the major part of the doors was made of leaded tin bronze, only the door from Hildesheim and some panels of the Augsburg door were made of a quaternary Cu–Sn–Zn–Pb alloy. In addition to chemical analyses, this paper also discusses in detail different aspects of the production of the three doors. High-resolution photographic documentation completes the detailed documentation of the three mediaeval doors.