Panorama of Nuremberg from the Top of the St. Lorenz Tower, Drawn from Nature

This panorama, the left
part of which is shown here, is probably the first 360-degree view of Nuremberg
to be produced with the aid of photographic means. Over the summers of 1846 and
1847, Karl Heller spent hours in a camera obscura on the north tower of the St.
Lorenzkirche to draw this true-to-life depiction of Nuremberg.

Heller, born in
Nuremberg in 1809, taught as a sculptor for many years in distant Athens,
before accepting a position to teach at the Polytechnical School in Nuremberg
in 1843. His panorama is known primarily from the masterly lithograph prepared
by painter and draftsman Theodor Rothbarth.

The panorama is drawn
from the St. Lorenzkirche, and thus all we see of that church is the roof of
its hall choir and part of the south tower. The whole work primarily portrays
the town's historic roofscape.