Image: Dance of Death Window, Bern, Switzerland

Detail of the Dance of Death Window, dating from c.1450, in Bern Munster. This theme (Totentanz in German) is an allegory of the universality and inevitablity of death and was especially popular after the Black Plague swept Europe in the 14th century. Construction on Bern's cathedral began in 1421. It became a Protestant church after the city adopted the Reformation in 1528.