Cologne Cathedral, Germany.
Illustration: SHUTTERSTOCK
Cologne Cathedral (German: Kölner Dom, officially Hohe Domkirche Sankt Petrus, Latin: Ecclesia Cathedralis Sanctorum Petri, English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Cologne, Germany.
It is The Seat of The Archbishop of Cologne and of The Administration of The Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a renowned Monument of German Catholicism and Gothic Architecture and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996. It is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day and currently the tallest Twin-Spired Church at 157 m (515 ft) tall.
Cologne Cathedral, Germany.
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English: The unfinished Cologne Cathedral, 1856, with a 15th-Century Crane on The South Tower.
Deutsch: Vor dem unfertigen Dom:
Zollverwaltung
Am Bollwerk“ mit achteckigem Zinnenturm.
Date: 1856.
Source: Uta Grefe: Köln in frühen Photographien 1847-1914, Schirmer/Mosel Verlag,
München, 1988, ISBN 3-88814-294-6Scan by Raimond Spekking.
Author: Johann Franz Michiels (1823–1887).
(Wikimedia Commons)
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. The Cathedral is the largest Gothic Church in Northern Europe and has the Second-Tallest Spires. The Towers for its two huge Spires give the Cathedral the 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".
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".
My favourite building in the world.
ReplyDeletePat and I first saw it when we were 22. You come out of narrow streets and wow! there it is before you.
She looked up at was at the time the 5th highest building in the world and gasped those immortal words - which we remind her of nearly 60 years later.
"Hell's Bells!"
Thanks, John. Good to hear from you and Pat.
ReplyDeleteDelighted this Post brought back happy memories to you both.
Wishing you both a Very Happy, Holy, and Peaceful Christmas.