Remagen - Pfarrhoftor

One of the first printed records about this gate stated in 1859 "Of all old monuments in the Rhine valley, none as mysterious as the portal (...) near the church in Remagen".

The Pfarrhoftor (= Gateway to the parish close) still is enigmatic. It may have been erected for a nearby monastery, that centered around an St. Apollinaris shrine, it may have been in deed a gate to a parish close. Actually it known since the 17th century, when parts of it were found, walled in between the rectory and the encircling wall. The parts were recovered and like pieces of a puzzle joined together.

Though the cope stone was lost, the large arch was easy to reconstruct. Wether the smaller side portal originally was left or right is unclear.
The 22 carved reliefs here have triggered more than a dozend different theories. I will quote some. The carving style was not appreciated by the art-historians. Already Wilhelm Bode ("Geschichte der Deutschen Plastik") wrote in 1887 that the carver was "without any artistic ambition".

For me this portal has parallels in Linden and Goegging. All three portals are roughly carved - and enigmatic, blending christian, pagan and ancient icons. The only point, that is undisputed is, that the portal was erected in the second half of the 12th century.

It may be, that the reliefs, seen here, are just single icons, that are not interconnected to a certain "iconographic program". This is claimed by Paul Clement (1938), Georg Dehio (1933) and Josef Minn (1942). In 1947 Albert M. Koeniger published the results of his research, interpreting the reliefs as icons of eight (!) deadly sins as described by Bishop Burchard of Worms (965-1025), author of a canon law collection (aka "Decretum Burchardi").

A bird, wearing a bearded man's face on the back, feeding on fish.

The bird may be an eagle or at least a bird of prey (beak, raptorial claws). Maybe this is a fish-eagle, but a very special one, having that face on it´s back. The long haired, bearded face, reminded my on the head of John the Baptist. The fish looks like a salmon.

According to Albert M. Koeniger, the fish is a carp and the sea-eagle is known for the gluttony, one of the deadly sins ("gula"). He quotes Phil. 3.18 " their god is their stomach", to explain the face...