The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the supreme achievements of Norman culture. Indeed, it is a monument to all of Western Civilization. The fact that it has survived nearly intact over nine centuries is nothing short of miraculous. Its exceptional length, the vibrancy of its colors, its exquisite workmanship, and the genius of its creation combine to make it endlessly fascinating.

The tapestry is widely recognized for its distinctive artistic style because it resembles a modern comic strip or film storyboard. It has been re-imaged in a variety of different popular culture contexts. It has also been cited by scholars as an early example of narrative art. Bryan Talbot, a British comic book artist has referred to it as “the first known British comic strip.”

The original 230ft-long embroidered cloth is thought to have been commissioned between 1066 and 1082 by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William the Conqueror’s half-brother. Most historians believe the tapestry was created by Anglo-Saxon embroiderers at a workshop in Canterbury, a city in southern England.

The highly-detailed work took more than ten years to complete. It depicts over fifty scenes of the Norman Conquest leading up to the Battle of Hastings, where William defeated King Harold II. The last few feet of the original tapestry were irreparably damaged and vanished eons ago. Considering the number of times it was exhibited over the centuries, it is extraordinary that so much of the Bayeux Tapestry actually still exists. Nevertheless, the narrative ends just before the coronation of William on Christmas Day 1066 in London.

Newly reconstructed panels now depict William arriving in London to be crowned. In 2014, a team of embroiderers on Alderney, a small island just off the coast of Normandy “finished” the job. The project took a year to complete, and every effort was made to ensure it fitted in with its famous forebear. Embroiders used the same techniques, fabrics, colors and similar types of wool to the medieval original.

One of the most fascinating aspects of The Bayeux Tapestry’s legend is the mere fact that it still survives, considering how many times it has narrowly avoided destruction over the years.

During the French Revolution in 1792, the tapestry was confiscated as public property to be used to cover military wagons; cloth being so scarce at the time. The masterpiece was rescued at the last minute by a local lawyer, Léonard Lambert-Forestier, who stored it in his home until the danger subsided. Later he returned it to city administrators for safekeeping.

Two years later, the tapestry ironically nearly became part of a float for a local ‘Genius of the Arts’ festival. Thankfully, cooler heads again prevailed, and this time the city’s police chief stepped in to save the priceless artifact from certain destruction.

In 1803, the Bayeux Tapestry was brought to Paris for display at the Louvre. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte thought that the relic might be instructive for his planned invasion of England. When he aborted his plans to conquer the British Isles the propaganda value of the tapestry eventually dissipated, and it was returned Bayeux.

But it was during World War Two that the tapestry endured what was perhaps its greatest ordeal. As Hitler’s armies were marching into Poland in September 1939, the Bayeux Tapestry was being carefully removed from its display case by its keeper, Monsieur Falue. He gently rolled the artwork onto its ancient spool, wrapped it in sheets, sprayed it with a powerful insecticide and packed it into a zinc-lined crate. The crate was stowed away in the basement of the bishop’s palace in Bayeux, where it remained for a little over a year.

With the Nazi invasion of France in June 1940 the whereabouts of the priceless tapestry became a top priority for the occupying forces. Once it was located, high-ranking Nazi officials dragged the tattered relic from its vault more than a dozen times to be exhibited during late 1940 and through September of the following year. A number of competing factions wanted to get their hands on the tapestry once and for all. Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg – the organization responsible for Herman Goering’s wholesale looting of precious art from conquered nations – lobbied heavily for authority over the artwork. The Reichsmarshall had a particular fondness for tapestries and Oriental rugs.

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels could see the PR value of Germany bringing the tapestry ‘home’ as well. The Nazis believed the tapestry was a significant historical record which showed the Aryan people conquering Britain.

Himmler, Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), was eager for the SS to acquire the work. He even allocated a space for it at Wewelsburg, his renovated medieval castle in Westphalia. Obsessed with the idea of the medieval Teutonic Knights, Himmler chose to establish his headquarters in the region where the knights had launched their successful campaign against the Slavs in the 13th century. Himmler planned to use Wewelsburg Castle as the location of his “Aryan Academy”: a cross between a monastic retreat and a finishing school for Storm-troopers. An entire curriculum was set up for the training of elite SS officers in order to re-create the lost world of the Nordic race.

‘The Society for the Study of German Ancestral Heritage,’ known as the Ahnenerbe, was established in 1935 by Himmler. Its purpose was to conduct research proving the early Germanic roots of Europe and the anthropological origins of the Aryan race.

In the early 1940s, the Ahnenerbe’s art historians focused their efforts on establishing the tapestry’s credentials as an Aryan creation, on the grounds that the Normans were descended from the Vikings. Himmler erroneously believed the tapestry was a great monument to Germanic hegemony. The early Normans, he claimed, laid the foundations of both the German and English empires. He described the Bayeux Tapestry as the most important document of the Norman Conquest.

The Ahnenerbe argued that the tapestry provided indisputable evidence that the Viking heritage and the traditions of their Scandinavian homeland survived in pure form in Normandy. To irrefutably link the Normans with the Vikings, it was recommended that the tapestry’s images be recorded and carefully analyzed.

Himmler had developed a close relationship with Dr. Herbert Jankuhn, an archaeologist who became site supervisor of the Hedeby excavations in 1937. Himmler and Jankuhn both shared an obsession with the “Nordic spirit” and the Vikings. Jankuhn, an ardent Nazi, was appointed head of the Ahnenerbe’s excavation and archaeology section.

Jankuhn’s task was to oversee the project and initiate a detailed study of the tapestry. He was accompanied by Dr. Karl Schlabow, head of the Textile Museum in Neumünster. Their job was to examine the fabric, collect samples of the material and take detailed measurements and drawings of the artwork. Jankuhn brought in Herbert Jeschke – an artist who specialized in archaeological drawings – to produce an accurate, full-sized facsimile of the tapestry. A photographer was assigned to take a new series of pictures of the tapestry using the latest technology from Leica.

The project finally got off the ground in June 1941. The strategy was to assemble all the data necessary to ensure that future studies could continue after the tapestry had been moved to a more secure location. Jankuhn conducted his investigation inside the monastery of St-Martin de Mondaye, about five miles south of Bayeux. The survey was completed on July 31st, 1941.

At the beginning of August, the tapestry was transported once again under the watchful eye of Monsieur Falue – armed with only a fire-extinguisher. It was taken several miles southeast to the Chateau de Sourches where some of the Louvre’s most valuable treasures had already been deposited for safe keeping. The tapestry was to remain there until June 1944.

On June 6, 1944, allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. Despite some early setbacks, they were able to establish a foothold in northern France. Operation Overlord eventually proved to be an extremely hard-fought and costly military success for the allies – but the writing was clearly on the wall for Germany’s military leaders. A two-front war meant certain doom for the Third Reich. On the night of June 27, the Gestapo removed the tapestry from Chateau Sourches under armed guard and took it to the Louvre’s much more secure basement – ostensibly because of fears that Sourches could be targeted by the allies – although other valuable artworks were left behind.

On 18 August, three days before the Wehrmacht permanently withdrew from the city, Himmler personally sent a top-secret message to General Dietrich von Choltitz, Commander of German Armed Forces in Paris. He notified von Choltitz that the tapestry was to be removed from its vault at the Louvre and immediately delivered to “a place of safety.” He was very likely referring to Berlin; and then God knows where? Wewelsburg? Probably.

It appeared that time had finally run out for the Bayeux Tapestry.

In the meantime, allied forces had reached the outskirts of Paris. An intense firefight waged in the city’s streets. On 21 August, four SS officers presented themselves to General der Infanterie von Choltitz, saying they were under strict orders to seize the tapestry on behalf of the Reich. They arrived in two trucks carrying enough fuel for a long journey. In a time of severe rationing, this was an ominous sign.

The General’s quick thinking saved the Bayeux Tapestry from a ruinous fate. Von Choltitz was able to stall for time by telling the two SS men that the Louvre was already in the hands of the allies, and he could offer them no back-up to secure the museum in order to retrieve the artwork. Finding it impossible to get inside the building due to the heavy fighting in the area, the men were forced to return to Berlin empty-handed.

General von Choltitz is recognized today as one of the true heroes of World War Two. After the war he was awarded the Legion d’Honneur by the French government for his refusal to carry out Hitler’s insane order to reduce Paris to rubble in the wake of the German retreat. In the twisted logic of the Nazis, the city of Paris and all of its monuments was to be destroyed, while the Bayeux Tapestry was saved.

Von Choltitz surrendered the entire German garrison of 17,000 men to the Free French forces of Charles De Gaulle, leaving the city intact. Paris was safely in allied hands, and the wartime threats to the Bayeux Tapestry were essentially over. At the end of 1944, as the war in Europe began winding down, the tapestry was put on public display in Paris for the first time since 1804. In March 1945, the tapestry was finally returned to Bayeux after a harrowing, almost four-year absence.

The tapestry has since been able to maintain a much more tranquil existence. In 1993 a new Tapestry Gallery was opened in the city of Bayeux. The irreplaceable masterpiece was mounted as one continuous strip sealed inside of a specially designed, climate-controlled display case.

And there it safely remains.

[Edited repost from 2014]