Made from wood, the predecessors of today’s altar weren’t so lucky and, after the second fire at St. Michael’s in 1906, the Hamburg residents had learned their lesson, creating the new altar from marble. The parish also wanted the retable, which illustrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, to be able to survive a fire. If you look very closely, you’ll notice that the image is not painted, but rather comprises many small glass tesserae.
