Cologne Cathedral

Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden laid the foundation stone on 15 August 1248, and the building he began was meant for one purpose above all: to house the relics of the Three Magi, which Archbishop Rainald of Dassel had brought from Milan in 1164 as spoils of Frederick Barbarossa's war. The ground plan and the proportions of the nave follow Amiens closely. Under Master Gerhard the choir rose first and was consecrated in 1322, but money and momentum ran out; by the 16th century work had stopped altogether, leaving the south tower unfinished at belfry level, topped by a huge crane that stayed on the skyline for some four hundred years.

Completion came from the Romantic enthusiasm for the Middle Ages and from the rediscovery of the medieval façade drawings. From 1842 a citizens' association, the Zentral-Dombauverein, raised about two-thirds of the cost and the Prussian state the rest. Ernst Friedrich Zwirner led the work until his death in 1861, following the old plans but using iron in the roof structure. The cathedral was declared finished on 15 October 1880, 632 years after it was begun, in the presence of Emperor Wilhelm I. At about 157 metres, its twin spires made it the tallest building in the world until the Washington Monument overtook it four years later, and it remains the tallest cathedral anywhere. In the Second World War it took fourteen bomb hits yet stood above a flattened city; the repairs, led by Willy Weyres, allowed it to reopen in 1956.

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. Visitors can climb 533 steps to a platform about 100 metres up with a view across the Rhine. Cologne itself began as a Roman colony and is still defined by the river; since the early 18th century its name has also meant a perfume.

Getting there

The cathedral is in the centre of Cologne, about 0.3 km from the heart of the Altstadt-Nord quarter, and directly beside Köln Hauptbahnhof, the main railway station; the tram and U-Bahn stop is Dom/Hbf. Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN) is about 15.5 km away.