Three explanations at once
The first point explains the power of the spectacle. A European city dweller knew about dragons from sermons and images; a scaly, toothy creature hanging beneath the ceiling made the story seem literally true.
The second and third points worked together. The church was the main public building, and rarities flowed there, from ostrich eggs and tusks to shells and stuffed animals, forming something like the first city collection of curiosities.
What this tells us about the era
These hangings were forerunners of museums. Before cabinets of curiosities and collections appeared, churches stored and displayed unusual objects, and everyone could enter them.
That also explains why some of these finds survived. Several such specimens made it to the present day precisely because they hung high beneath the ceiling and got in no one's way, sometimes for four or five centuries.
Historians also urge caution. There is usually no documentation explaining why a particular specimen was hung, so the explanations are reconstructed from indirect evidence, which means they remain theories.
Similar customs are known for other objects too: whale bones as a giant's ribs, a narwhal tusk as a unicorn's horn. The mechanism was the same: a rare object received an explanation from stories people already knew.
Why did churches hang crocodile specimens?
What were these hangings for their time?
Sources
- Crocodile specimens hung beneath church ceilings have been documented in several European churches
- their appearance is linked to gifts from travelers, vow offerings, and the perception of the animal as an embodiment of the dragon in saints' legends. Documentary evidence of the motives behind most specific cases has not survived
Next in the “Dragons” series
2 articles in full on the site, 2 more in the app
