Who were the recepients of Christian monumental sculptures in the early middle ages (10th and 11th century)?

I am in the process of writing a paper about the bronze column commissioned by Bernwardus Hildesheimiensis, the bishop founder of Benedictine Monastery of St. Michael in Hildesheim, completed approximately between 1015-1022. The question I am trying to answer is who could actually see this monument. There are various theories about why such an expensive and technologically advanced bronze sculpture was created and erected in a "frontier" place like Hildesheim (barely a town, more a muddy farmer village) at the turn of the 10th to the 11th century. One of the theories is that it was supposed to impress the pagan Slavic populations that were being Christianized in this era. The intention was to show Christian superiority in both faith and as an advanced civilisation. But as it was positioned inside an abbey church, there was certainly no pagan who would have seen it. My question is thus: **Who could see this column apart from the clerics? How could it help spread the Gospel and help the conversion to Christianity of the Slavic people?**