Nuremberg. A CITY RICH IN ART AND HISTORY.

The German city was the site of the trial of Nazi criminals and gave birth to the greatest German painter, Albrecht Durer.

by Fabio Massimo Penna

The name of the city of Nuremberg is inextricably linked to the tragic events of the second world war and of the dictatorship of Hitler. After the war the major world powers met in Potsdam, establish the formation of the Nuremberg tribunal in charge of judging the war crimes committed by the nazis. The city has a large Palace of Justice, near which is a prison. Here, from 20 November 1945 to 31 August 1946, takes place process as known in the history of mankind. Also, Nuremberg is infamous for having hosted the congress of the nazi party, September 1934. The hated rally was immortalised by the skilled camera of Leni Riefenstahl in the film triumph of The will (1935). Another witness to the nazi past is the esplanade of the convention of the national socialist party, the building of a vague hint of the rationalist functioning of monumentality magniloquent and geometric rigor. The work was designed by Albert Speer, the architect of compromise with the nazis, the Nuremberg tribunal, is to condemn to twenty years of prison.

Beyond these memories of the tragic events of the Twentieth century, the city is home to many important architectural and artistic masterpieces dating back to the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. Remarkable is the church of St. Sebaldus church, dedicated to the patron saint of the city, which is an example of the mixture of romanesque and baroque. It is a basilica divided into three naves and is framed by two towers. It is the oldest church in Nuremberg, and, unfortunately, was almost completely destroyed during the bombings of the second world war. Inside is placed the splendid tomb-reliquary of St. Sebaldus, a bronze structure, made by the goldsmith Pieter Vischer the old, in 1515. It's an imposing canopy and adorned with statues, which attests to the propensity of Nuremberg for the machining of metals. Of great impact is also Pellerhaus, an example of late gothic building, characterized by two slopes. The façade has a smooth ashlar in the lower levels and a decreasing series of windows that gives lightness to the building in the upper ones. The set is complemented by spires and a pediment, the arched, on which dominates the statue. The other architecture of great historic and artistic value, is the Imperial Castle, a medieval fortress that dominates the city. Built as the residence of the rulers, the castle suffered serious damage during the second world war to be rebuilt later. The building is divided into three different parts: the Imperial Castle, the Palazzo del principe and the municipal buildings of the city. In the church of San Lorenzo, one can admire The annunciation (1517-19) by Veit Stoss; the polychrome wooden group of statues of the Virgin and the angel enveloped by a ring of angels and sacred symbols. Stoss is a sculptor able to undergird the work of a strong dramatic tension. A native of Nuremberg, the artist was long in Poland, where he worked in Krakow (Altar of Saint Mary, the tomb of Casimir the duomo).

In the vicinity of the Imperial Castle is the Durer-haus is the house-museum of the painter Albrecht Durer. Here, the German artist lived and worked between 1509 and 1528. Durer is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most important German artist in the history of art. Nuremberg is, between the late Fifteenth and early Sixteenth centuries, the cultural and economic centre among the most important of Germany, the place of attraction for bankers, merchants, and artisans. In this rich and prosperous city Durer was born in 1471, in his father's goldsmith shop, and, later, at the school of Wohlgemut, where it is directed towards the woodcut and the engraving. From these experiences comes his line of drawing sharp and expressive. Two trips to Venice (the first between the years 1494 and 1495, and the second between 1505 and 1507) the approach to the chromatic quality and the plastic rendering of Giovanni Bellini, and introduced him into the practice of perspective. During the second stay in the lagoon, the German artist painted his early masterpiece The feast of the rosary (1506), and a table in which the pyramid formed by the Virgin, the Child, the angels and the praying people knelt down, surrounded by up of a large number of figures. The work reveals the influence of Leonardo, especially in the concatenation of gestures and glances. The quality of the portrait of Dürer is evident in his self-portraits emerged, self-Portrait with gloves (1498), in which he depicts three-quarter gaze toward the viewer. The figure is cut below the elbow by a parapet and to handle the painting there is a window that looks out on a landscape nordic. Durer is a man of many interests, and, by careful observer of nature, and himself a nice hare Hare (1502). Great success was also his woodcuts in which shows an extraordinary propensity towards the world of the imaginary and visionary, as demonstrated in the works of The melancholy, The knight. death and the devil, St. Michael and the dragon.