The Most Beautiful Cathedrals in Germany
6 places ยท updated 14 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful cathedrals in Germany are Bamberg Cathedral, Speyer Cathedral and Cologne Cathedral. The list covers 6 cathedrals. Last updated 14 October 2026.
Germany holds the whole arc of the medieval cathedral, from Carolingian beginnings through Romanesque power to Gothic height. Emperors chose the Rhine and its cities for their churches, and later centuries finished what the Middle Ages began, so the country's cathedrals read like a history of the Holy Roman Empire.
Aachen Cathedral grew from the Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne, an octagon of around 800 where German kings were crowned for six centuries. Speyer Cathedral is the largest surviving Romanesque church, and its crypt holds the tombs of Salian emperors. Cologne Cathedral, begun in 1248 and completed only in 1880, raises its twin spires above the Rhine and keeps the Shrine of the Three Kings. Naumburg Cathedral is known for the 13th-century founder figures by the Naumburg Master, above all the statue of Uta.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bamberg Cathedral | Cathedral | |
| 2 | Speyer Cathedral | Cathedral | โ |
| 3 | Cologne Cathedral | Cathedral | โ |
| 4 | Hildesheim Cathedral | Cathedral | โ |
| 5 | Aachen Cathedral | Cathedral | โ |
| 6 | Naumburg Cathedral | Cathedral | โ |
01 Bamberg Cathedral
Bamberger Dom
Germany49.891ยฐ N 10.883ยฐ E
ะะฒะปะฐัะตะฝะบะพ ยท CC BY-SA 3.0 The cathedral is an active church.
02 Speyer Cathedral
Speyerer Dom
Germany ยท 20.5 km from Mannheim49.317ยฐ N 8.443ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by PhotoEnduro from Pixabay The cathedral survived the fire of 1689, service as a stable and a French plan to quarry it for stone; the west front with its two towers and dome is a neo-Romanesque rebuild of 1854โ58. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. Some of the clothing found in the imperial graves is shown at the Historical Museum of the Palatinate near the cathedral.
Did you know? The future King Edward VII first met his bride, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, at Speyer Cathedral on 24 September 1861.
03 Cologne Cathedral
Kรถlner Dom
Germany ยท 1.3 km from Cologne50.941ยฐ N 6.958ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Sandeepdattaraju ยท CC BY-SA 4.0 The treasures inside span a millennium. The Gero Crucifix, carved in oak around 960, is the oldest surviving large crucifix north of the Alps. The gilded Shrine of the Three Kings, begun around 1190 by Nicholas of Verdun and shaped like a small basilica, is the building's reason for being, and Stefan Lochner's altarpiece of the city's patron saints hangs in the Chapel of St Mary. In the south transept, Gerhard Richter's window of 2007 replaces glass lost in the war with 11,500 squares of coloured glass arranged at random by computer. The 24-tonne St Peter's Bell, cast in 1922 and known locally as Decke Pitter, rings only on a handful of high feast days.
Did you know? On 6 March 1945 American tanks fought a German Panther in the square beside the cathedral, a duel caught on film.
04 Hildesheim Cathedral
Hildesheimer Dom
Germany ยท 28.9 km from Hanover52.149ยฐ N 9.947ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Roland Struwe ยท CC BY-SA 4.0 On 22 March 1945 an air raid left the cathedral almost completely destroyed. It was rebuilt in the 1950s in a simplified form closer to its early Romanesque appearance and consecrated anew in 1960. Against the outer wall of the apse grows the Thousand-year Rose, the city's emblem. Local legend holds that Louis the Pious hung a reliquary of the Virgin on a wild rose while hunting here, could not take it down again, and took this as a sign to found the diocese on the spot. The bush has been documented for several centuries; burned down to its roots in 1945, it sent up new shoots among the rubble that same spring.
Did you know? Bishop Bernward's bronze column was inspired by the triumphal columns of ancient Rome.
05 Aachen Cathedral
Aachener Dom
Germany ยท 30 km from Maastricht50.775ยฐ N 6.084ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by ThomasWolter from Pixabay In 1978 Aachen became one of the first twelve sites anywhere on UNESCO's World Heritage List, and Germany's first. The building survived wartime bombing structurally intact, though the medieval stained glass of the choir was lost.
Did you know? In Charlemagne's day the outside walls were rendered red, using plaster mixed with crushed brick.
06 Naumburg Cathedral
Naumburger Dom
Germany ยท 29.5 km from Jena51.155ยฐ N 11.804ยฐ E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by Makalu from Pixabay UNESCO added the cathedral to the World Heritage list in 2018. It lies on the Romanesque Road, a heritage route through Saxony-Anhalt.
Did you know? The plants carved on the capitals of the west rood screen are so precise that botanists can identify the individual species.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented โ the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful cathedrals in Germany?
- On our list, Bamberg Cathedral ranks first, followed by Speyer Cathedral and Cologne Cathedral.
- How long did it take to build Cologne Cathedral?
- Construction began in 1248, stopped for centuries in the late Middle Ages, and resumed in the 19th century following the original plans; the cathedral was completed in 1880.
- Why is Aachen Cathedral important?
- Its core is Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel, where he was buried and where German kings were crowned; in 1978 it became one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
- Who is Uta of Naumburg?
- A margravine of Meissen portrayed among the donor statues of Naumburg Cathedral's west choir; her 13th-century figure is one of the best-known sculptures of the German Middle Ages.
- How many cathedrals are on this list in Germany?
- The list covers 6 cathedrals.