MY FIRST INTEREST in the Heribert Shrine arose from the fact that two of its roof medallions depicted dream scenes, the focus of my doctoral research. With that focus in mind, in 1988 I went to the Church of St. Heribert in Deutz to see the Heribert Shrine, where on my arrival I unbelievably found on display just the shrine's interior wooden box containing Heribert's remains. From an art-historical point of view, that in no way measured up to the long-awaited experience of seeing a glorious golden bejewelled shrine with its twelve enamel medallions depicting the important events of Heribert's life. Greatly disappointed but still in the hope of seeing the shrine, I next went to the Diocesan Museum in Cologne, where the shrine had been sent to await examination and restoration. However, there, on meeting Martin Seidler, who was overseeing its restoration, I was told that the shrine was in pieces and thus impossible to be seen.

Then in 1999 I went back to Deutz to see and photograph the then restored shrine, only to encounter another challenge. No longer at eye level in the centre aisle, the shrine was now enclosed in a Plexiglas box set atop high pillars, themselves on a platform, thus making the exquisitely restored shrine basically impossible to see in detail (see photo opposite). Frustrated, I found my only hope of getting a better view was, with the aid of my husband, dragging over as quietly as possible in the empty church the nearby organ bench. Camera in hand, I climbed onto the bench to view the first side of the shrine from my new vantage point. Despite the Plexiglas barrier, the shrine's stunning gilded and enamelled surfaces and glimmering crystals and gems gleamed in the interplay of light. However, the higher-up enamel medallions positioned on the shrine's gable roof angled away from the vertical barrier of the shrine's enclosure. Telling the first part of the story of Heribert's life, they were the primary focus of my investigation, and though somewhat seeable, they were definitely not going to be suit-ably photographable from outside the box. As I stood on the bench trying to take in as much as I could of the ones on the first side of the shrine, my eyes were overcome by my ears as I heard a door open, followed by footsteps.