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taken from the other side of the River Rhine at dusk (09:58pm).
French: Vue panoramique de la vieille ville de Cologne, en (Rhénanie-du-Nord-Westphalie (Allemagne), prise depuis l'autre rive du Rhin au crépuscule (21h58).
German: Panorama-Aufnahme des Kölner Altstadtufers bei Abenddämmerung
(gegen 21:58 Uhr) von der anderen Rheinseite aus.
Photo: March 2009.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Author: Ahgee.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Cologne Cathedral (German: Kölner Dom, officially Hohe Domkirche St. Petrus, English: High Cathedral of St. Peter) is a Roman Catholic Church in Cologne, Germany. It is the Seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne.
It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site. It is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day.
Construction of Cologne Cathedral commenced in 1248 and was halted in 1473, leaving it unfinished. Work restarted in the 19th-Century and was completed, to the original plan, in 1880. It is 144.5 metres (474 ft) long, 86.5 m (284 ft) wide and its towers are approximately 157 m (515 ft) tall.
The Cathedral is the largest Gothic Church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spires and largest façade of any Church in the world. The Choir has the largest height to width ratio, 3.6:1, of any Mediaeval Church.
Cologne's Mediaeval builders had planned a grand structure to house the reliquary of The Three Kings and fit its role as a place of worship for the Holy Roman Emperor. Despite having been left incomplete during the Mediaeval period, Cologne Cathedral eventually became unified as "a masterpiece of exceptional intrinsic value" and "a powerful testimony to the strength and persistence of Christian belief in Mediaeval- and Modern-Europe".
English: Cologne Cathedral, from the South-East (2007).
Deutsch: Kölner Dom, Ansicht von Südosten (2007).
Photo: November 2007.
(Wikimedia Commons)
When the present Cologne Cathedral was commenced in 1248, the site had been occupied by several previous structures, the earliest of which may have been a grain store, perhaps succeeded by a Roman temple built by Mercurius Augustus.
From the 4th-Century, the site was occupied by Christian buildings, including a square edifice known as the "Oldest Cathedral" and commissioned by Maternus, the first Christian Bishop of Cologne.
A free-standing Baptistry, from the 6th-Century, was located at the East End of the Cathedral. The Baptistry was demolished to build the old Cathedral in the 9th-Century. Now, only the ruins of the Baptistry and the octagonal Baptismal Font remain.
The second Church, the so-called "Old Cathedral", was completed in 818 A.D. This was destroyed by fire on 30 April 1248, during demolition in preparation for the new Cathedral.
Deutsch: Kölner Dom bei Nacht in der Stadt Köln.
Italiano: Il Duomo di Colonia di notte.
Photo: January 2006.
Own work, uploaded to de.wikipedia 17. Mai 2006 by Robert Breuer.
Author: Robert Breuer.
(Wikimedia Commons)
PART TWO FOLLOWS
We lived in its shadow (almost) from 1960-1963 and then again 1979 - 1983. I drew it for the first time in 1982, and got the latest prints back from the printers last week... a continuing saga. A fabulous building which got easier to approach and appreciare once the skate boarders were banned!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to Part Two.
Good Evening, John.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your Comment. Good to hear from you and I'm pleased you like the Post.
I hope your Cologne Cathedral prints sell well. I shall keep an eye on them on your Blog, Gatepost Pictures, at http://gatepostpicture.blogspot.co.uk
Spooky that you RAF Chappies spent some time near Cologne. Some of my old lot spent some time at Wentworth Woodhouse, which you Posted on recently (3 November 2012) under the title "Wentworth Castle". Small world !!!
How come you RAF Chappies always got the best locations ?
Good evening, Zephyrinus.
ReplyDeleteI was conscripted into the RAF for National Service (no matter that I was already an Admiralty Shipwright) they posted me to RAF Butzeweilerhof (Cologne) as a Sheet Metal Worker. We lived in a flat in Cologne (not long married) with no English speakers within miles. They weren't best pleased that we were RAF - given the 1000 bomber raids a little earlier. Pat soon won them around!
Luckily my RAF uniform was very close to the local bus drivers kit ... a good disguise, apart from the fact I couldn't answer the bus schedule questions!
Your 'old lot'?
Thanks for the plug :0))