Decades ago, archaeological excavations unearthed an extremely rare find under the floor of the Romanesque basilica of St. Peter in Straubing. This is a mural fragment from the 11th or 12th century, which probably represents the head of Christ, but it could also be a saint. “The special find situation, which may indicate a ‘burial’ of a removed holy image, is touching and reflects a deep religiosity,” said Mathias Pfeil, general conservator of the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, on Thursday at the presentation of the fragment, which is now after a long time returned to Straubing and is being presented in the Gäubodenmuseum there.
As early as 1974, archaeologists discovered pieces of plaster with paint attached about half a meter below the early Romanesque floor covering in the central nave of St. Peter’s. The fragments were then taken to the workshops of the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Munich, where they were deposited and later meticulously processed by a team of restorers. It was painstaking puzzle work, but after assembling 92 pieces, a life-size male head with a halo emerged.
Günther Moosbauer, the head of the Gäubodenmuseum, says the fresco discovered in the floor is a unique case. There are several reasons why it took so long to return to Straubing. On the one hand, it is due to the fact that the restoration workshops are overwhelmed by the ever-growing mountain of find material and the processing of a find can often take years. In the case of Straubing, there was also the fact that the excellently restored fragment served as a visual object for prospective restorers for decades in the workshops of the state office because of its uniqueness.
According to the State Office, the fact that the shards were found in the floor allows the thesis that the portrait was once buried there on purpose. From the late Middle Ages to the Baroque period, it was quite common to “dispose of” liturgically important works of art in this way, as a kind of deponia pia, as “holy garbage”. Another thesis says that the plaster removed during the conversion around 1180 was simply used to fill the floor.