Take a good look at the bronze main entrance doors in front of you. These are not medieval doors. They are not even old doors. They were installed around sixty years ago, just weeks before the cathedral was reconsecrated — and they tell a story that begins before any story ever told. To understand why these doors exist, you need to remember what happened during the second world war. When the bombs fell on Würzburg, the original entrance to this cathedral was destroyed along with almost everything else. When it came time to rebuild, the church decided not to simply recreate what had been lost. Instead, they turned the destruction into an opportunity. A competition was held, and the brief was ambitious — this portal should feel like a threshold between the everyday world behind you and the sacred space ahead. It should depict the very beginning of everything: creation, paradise, the fall, and the promise of salvation. Three artists submitted designs and Fritz Koenig the sculptor won the competition. His design was chosen precisely because it blended the symbolic with the recognizable, and you can feel that balance as you look at what is in front of you. Now, let me walk you through it. Start by looking up, above the doors. The panel across the top shows a hand emerging from swirling cloud forms — that is the hand of God, dividing the waters from the stone-like earth. This is Day One. The very first act of creation, rendered in bronze. Now bring your eyes down to the left door. This is where the six days of creation unfold from top to bottom. You can trace the sequence — the sun, moon, and stars taking shape. Then plants pushing up from the ground. Then land animals. And finally, at the bottom, the creation of humankind. Six days, one door, the whole universe coming into being as you scan downward. Now look at the right door. This is paradise — the Garden of Eden where humanity was placed after being created. See if you can spot the four rivers at the top. In the Bible, four rivers flowed out of Eden, and Koenig has woven them into his design. Look for the figure of Adam lying down, and Eve rising from his body — that is the Genesis scene of Eve being formed from Adam's rib. And then the story turns. Look for the tree. The Tree of Knowledge, heavy with fruit, with the serpent coiled around it. This is the moment everything changes — the temptation. Both figures reach for what they have been told not to touch. And just below or beside them, you will find the archangel, sword of flame in hand, driving them out of paradise forever. So the left door gives you creation. The right door gives you paradise, temptation, and exile. And the panel above binds them together — God's hand, beginning it all. Read together, these doors compress the entire opening act of the Bible into a single entranceway. Every time someone walks through them, they are symbolically passing through the story of how the world began and how humanity lost its first home — and stepping into a space that promises redemption on the other side. Let us step inside the cathedral now.