Cologne Cathedral
Encyclopedia
Cologne Cathedral 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 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.
Cologne Cathedral was built between 1248 and 1880. It is 144.5 metres (474.1 ft) long, 86.5 m (283.8 ft) wide and its towers are approximately 157 m (515.1 ft) tall. The cathedral is the largest Gothic
church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spire
and largest façade of any church in the world. The choir has the largest height to width ratio of any medieval church.
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 baptistery
from the 6th century was located at the east end of the Cathedral. The baptistery was demolished to build the old cathedral in the 9th century. Now only the ruins of the baptistery and the octagonal baptismal font
remain.
The second church, the so-called "Old Cathedral", was completed in 818. This burned down on 30 April 1248.
had acquired the relics of the Three Kings which had been taken from the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio
, Milan, Italy by the Holy Roman Emperor
, Frederick Barbarossa
. (Parts of the relics have since been returned to Milan.) The relics had great religious significance and could be counted upon to draw pilgrims from all over Christendom
. It was important to church officials that they be properly housed. The loss of the old five-aisled cathedral prompted a building program in the new style of Gothic architecture
based in particular on the French cathedral of Amiens
.
The foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1248, by Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden
. The eastern arm was completed under the direction of Master Gerhard, was consecrated in 1322 and sealed off by a temporary wall so it could be in use as the work proceeded. Eighty four misericord
s in the choir date from this building phase.
In the mid 14th century work on the west front commenced under Master Michael. This work halted in 1473, leaving the south tower complete up to the belfry level and crowned with a huge crane which was destined to remain in place, and a landmark of the Cologne skyline, for 400 years.
Some work proceeded intermittently on the structure of the nave
between the west front and the eastern arm, but during the 16th century this ceased.
for the Middle Ages
, and spurred on by the lucky discovery of the original plan for the façade, it was decided, with the commitment of the Protestant Prussia
n Court, to complete the cathedral. It was achieved by civic effort; the Central-Dombauverein, founded in 1842, raised two-thirds of the enormous costs (over US$ 1 billion in today's money), while the Prussian state supplied the remaining third. The state saw this as a way to improve its relations with the large number of Catholic subjects it had gained in 1815.
Work resumed in 1842 to the original design of the surviving medieval plans and drawings, but utilising more modern construction techniques, including iron roof girders. The nave was completed and the towers were added. The bells were installed in the 1870s.
The completion of Germany's largest cathedral was celebrated as a national event on 14 August 1880, 632 years after construction had begun. The celebration was attended by Emperor Wilhelm I.
during World War II
. It did not collapse, but stood tall in an otherwise flattened city. The great twin spires are said to have been used as an easily recognizable navigational landmark by Allied aircraft raiding deeper into Germany in the later years of the war, which may be a reason that the cathedral was not destroyed. It has been claimed that in June 1945 American troops used the cathedral as a rifle range.
The repairs to the building were completed in 1956. In the northwest tower's base, an emergency repair carried out in 1944 with bad-quality brick taken from a nearby war ruin (see German Wikipedia "Kölner Domplombe") remained visible until 2005 as a reminder of the War, but then it was decided to reconstruct this section according to its original appearance. The brick-filling can be seen in the image on the right.
Some repair and maintenance work is constantly being carried out in some section of the building, which is almost never completely free of scaffolding, since wind, rain, and pollution slowly eat away at the stones. The Dombauhütte, which was established to build the cathedral and repair the cathedral, is said to employ the best stonemasons of the Rhineland. There is a common joke in Cologne that the leader of the Dombauhütte, the Dombaumeister (master builder of the cathedral), has to be Catholic and free from giddiness. The current Dombaumeisterin is Barbara Schock-Werner. Half of the costs of repair and maintenance are still borne by the Dombauverein.
On 25 August 2007, the cathedral received a new stained glass
in the south transept
window. With 113 square metres of glass, the window was created by the German artist Gerhard Richter
. It is composed of 11,500 identically sized pieces of coloured glass resembling pixel
s, randomly arranged by computer, which create a colorful "carpet". Since the loss of the original window in World War II, the space had been temporarily filled with plain glass. The archbishop of the cathedral, Joachim Cardinal Meisner, who had preferred a figurative depiction of 20th-century Catholic martyrs for the window, did not attend the unveiling.
World Heritage List of culturally important sites. In 2004 it was placed on the "World Heritage in Danger" list, as the only Western site in danger, due to plans to construct a high-rise building nearby, which would have visually impacted the site. The cathedral was removed from the List of In Danger Sites in 2006, following the authorities' decision to limit the heights of buildings constructed near and around the cathedral.
As a World Heritage Site, and with its convenient position on tourist routes, Cologne Cathedral is a major tourist attraction, the visitors including many who travel there as a Christian pilgrimage.
Visitors can climb 509 stone steps of the spiral staircase to a viewing platform about 98 m (321.5 ft) above the ground. The platform gives a scenic top view of the Rhine.
On 18 August 2005, Pope Benedict XVI
visited the cathedral during his apostolic visit to Germany, as part of World Youth Day 2005
festivities. An estimated one million pilgrims visited the cathedral during this time. Also as part of the events of World Youth Day, Cologne Cathedral hosted a televised gala performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis
, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
and the London Philharmonic Choir
conducted by Sir Gilbert Levine
.
The design of Cologne Cathedral was based quite closely on that of Amiens Cathedral
in terms of ground plan, style and the width to height proportion of the central nave. The plan is in the shape of a Latin Cross, as is usual with Gothic cathedrals. It has two aisles on either side, which help to support one of the very highest Gothic vaults in the world, being nearly as tall as that of the ill-fated Beauvais Cathedral, much of which collapsed. Externally the outward thrust of the vault is taken up by flying buttresses in the French manner. The eastern end has a single ambulatory, the second aisle resolving into a chevet of seven radiating chapels.
Internally, the medieval choir is more varied and less mechanical in its details than the 19th century building. It presents a French style arrangement of very tall arcade
, a delicate narrow triforium
gallery lit by windows and with detailed tracery merging with that of the windows above. The clerestory
windows are tall and retain some old figurative glass in the lower sections. The whole is united by the tall shafts which sweep unbroken from the floor to their capitals at the spring of the vault. The vault is of plain quadripartite arrangement.
The choir retains a great many of its original fittings, including the carved stalls, which is made the more surprising by the fact that French Revolutionary troops had desecrated the building. A large stone statue of St Christopher looks down towards the place where the earlier entrance to the cathedral was, before its completion in the late 19th century.
The nave is enhanced by a good many 19th century stained glass windows including a set of five on the south side called the "Bayernfenster" which were a gift from Ludwig I of Bavaria
, a set highly representative of the painterly German style of that date.
Externally, particularly from a distance, the building is dominated by its huge spires which are entirely Germanic in character, being openwork like those of Ulm, Vienna and Regensburg Cathedral
s.
at the centre.
The most celebrated work of art in the cathedral is the Shrine of the Three Kings, a large gilded sarcophagus
dating from the 13th century, and the largest reliquary
in the Western world. It is traditionally believed to hold the remains of the Three Wise Men, whose bones and 2,000-year-old clothes were discovered at the opening of the shrine in 1864.
Near the sacristy
is the Gero-Kreuz
, a large crucifix carved in oak and with traces of paint and gilding. Believed to have been commissioned around 960 for Archbishop Gero, it is the oldest large crucifix north of the Alps
and the earliest-known large free-standing Northern sculpture of the medieval period.
In the Sacrament Chapel is the Mailänder Madonna ("Milan Madonna"), dating from around 1290, a wooden sculpture depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. The altar of the patron saints of Cologne with an altar piece by the International Gothic
painter, Stephan Lochner is in the Marienkapelle ("St. Mary's Chapel"). Other works of art are to be found in the Cathedral Treasury.
The altar also houses the relics of Saint Irmgardis
.
During the 19th century, as the building neared completion, there was a desire to extend the number of bells. This was facilitated by Kaiser Wilhelm I who gave French bronze
cannon, captured in 1870–71, for this purpose. The 22 pieces of artillery were displayed outside the Cathedral on the 11 May 1872. Andreas Hamm in Frankenthal used them to cast a bell of over 27,000 kilos on the 19 August 1873. The tone was not harmonious and another attempt was made on the 13 November 1873. The Central Cathedral Association, which had agreed to take over the costs, did not want this bell either. Another attempt took place on the 3 October 1874. The colossal bell was shipped to Cologne and on the 13 May 1875, installed in the Cathedral. This Kaiserglocke was eventually dismantled in 1918 to support the German war effort.
The 24-ton St. Petersglocke
("Bell of St. Peter", "Dicke Pitter" in the Kölsch dialect), was cast in 1922 and is the largest free-swinging bell in the world. (See below: Gallery, Petersglocke)
Bells of the ridge turret:
Bells of the main bell cage in the south spire:
s by Klais Orgelbau, the Transept Organ built in 1948 and the Nave Organ built in 1998. Cathedral organists have included Josef Zimmermann, Clemens Ganz
(1985–2001) and Winfried Bönig
(2001).
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Germany. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is renowned monument of German Catholicism
Roman Catholicism in Germany
The German Catholic Church, part of the worldwide Catholic Church, is under the leadership of the Pope, curia in Rome, and the German bishops. The current president of the conference is Robert Zollitsch, the archbishop to Freiburg, the country's second largest diocese with 2.07 million Catholics...
and Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
and is a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. It is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day.
Cologne Cathedral was built between 1248 and 1880. It is 144.5 metres (474.1 ft) long, 86.5 m (283.8 ft) wide and its towers are approximately 157 m (515.1 ft) tall. The cathedral is the largest Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spire
Spire
A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....
and largest façade of any church in the world. The choir has the largest height to width ratio of any medieval church.
History
Ancient site
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 templeRoman temple
Ancient Roman temples are among the most visible archaeological remains of Roman culture, and are a significant source for Roman architecture. Their construction and maintenance was a major part of ancient Roman religion. The main room housed the cult image of the deity to whom the temple was...
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 baptistery
Baptistery
In Christian architecture the baptistry or baptistery is the separate centrally-planned structure surrounding the baptismal font. The baptistry may be incorporated within the body of a church or cathedral and be provided with an altar as a chapel...
from the 6th century was located at the east end of the Cathedral. The baptistery was demolished to build the old cathedral in the 9th century. Now only the ruins of the baptistery and the octagonal baptismal font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
remain.
The second church, the so-called "Old Cathedral", was completed in 818. This burned down on 30 April 1248.
Medieval beginning
In 1164, the Archbishop of Cologne, Rainald of DasselRainald of Dassel
Rainald of Dassel was archbishop of Cologne from 1159 to 1167 and archchancellor of Italy. He was preceded as archbishop by Friedrich II of Berg and succeeded by Philip I von Heinsberg....
had acquired the relics of the Three Kings which had been taken from the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio
Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio
The Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio is a church in Milan, northern Italy. It was for many years an important centre for pilgrims on their journey to Rome or to the Holy Land, because it was the site of the tomb of the Three Magi or Three Kings....
, Milan, Italy by the Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, Frederick Barbarossa
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...
. (Parts of the relics have since been returned to Milan.) The relics had great religious significance and could be counted upon to draw pilgrims from all over Christendom
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
. It was important to church officials that they be properly housed. The loss of the old five-aisled cathedral prompted a building program in the new style of Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
based in particular on the French cathedral of Amiens
Amiens Cathedral
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens , or simply Amiens Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral and seat of the Bishop of Amiens...
.
The foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1248, by Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden
Konrad von Hochstaden
Konrad von Hochstaden was Archbishop of Cologne from 1238 to 1261.-Life:Konrad was a son of Count Lothar of Hochstadt, canon of St. Maria ad Gradus and of the old Cologne Cathedral, and Mathilde of Vianden. His date of birth is unknown, and nothing is known of his early youth...
. The eastern arm was completed under the direction of Master Gerhard, was consecrated in 1322 and sealed off by a temporary wall so it could be in use as the work proceeded. Eighty four misericord
Misericord
A misericord is a small wooden shelf on the underside of a folding seat in a church, installed to provide a degree of comfort for a person who has to stand during long periods of prayer.-Origins:...
s in the choir date from this building phase.
In the mid 14th century work on the west front commenced under Master Michael. This work halted in 1473, leaving the south tower complete up to the belfry level and crowned with a huge crane which was destined to remain in place, and a landmark of the Cologne skyline, for 400 years.
Some work proceeded intermittently on the structure of the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
between the west front and the eastern arm, but during the 16th century this ceased.
19th century completion
With the 19th century romantic enthusiasmGerman Romanticism
For the general context, see Romanticism.In the philosophy, art, and culture of German-speaking countries, German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. German Romanticism developed relatively late compared to its English counterpart, coinciding in its...
for the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, and spurred on by the lucky discovery of the original plan for the façade, it was decided, with the commitment of the Protestant Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n Court, to complete the cathedral. It was achieved by civic effort; the Central-Dombauverein, founded in 1842, raised two-thirds of the enormous costs (over US$ 1 billion in today's money), while the Prussian state supplied the remaining third. The state saw this as a way to improve its relations with the large number of Catholic subjects it had gained in 1815.
Work resumed in 1842 to the original design of the surviving medieval plans and drawings, but utilising more modern construction techniques, including iron roof girders. The nave was completed and the towers were added. The bells were installed in the 1870s.
The completion of Germany's largest cathedral was celebrated as a national event on 14 August 1880, 632 years after construction had begun. The celebration was attended by Emperor Wilhelm I.
World War II and post-war history
The cathedral suffered seventy hits by aerial bombsBombing of Cologne in World War II
The City of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II, including 31 times by the Royal Air Force . Air raid alarms went off in the winter/spring of 1940 as enemy bombers passed overhead. However, the first actual bombing took place on 12 May 1940...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It did not collapse, but stood tall in an otherwise flattened city. The great twin spires are said to have been used as an easily recognizable navigational landmark by Allied aircraft raiding deeper into Germany in the later years of the war, which may be a reason that the cathedral was not destroyed. It has been claimed that in June 1945 American troops used the cathedral as a rifle range.
The repairs to the building were completed in 1956. In the northwest tower's base, an emergency repair carried out in 1944 with bad-quality brick taken from a nearby war ruin (see German Wikipedia "Kölner Domplombe") remained visible until 2005 as a reminder of the War, but then it was decided to reconstruct this section according to its original appearance. The brick-filling can be seen in the image on the right.
Some repair and maintenance work is constantly being carried out in some section of the building, which is almost never completely free of scaffolding, since wind, rain, and pollution slowly eat away at the stones. The Dombauhütte, which was established to build the cathedral and repair the cathedral, is said to employ the best stonemasons of the Rhineland. There is a common joke in Cologne that the leader of the Dombauhütte, the Dombaumeister (master builder of the cathedral), has to be Catholic and free from giddiness. The current Dombaumeisterin is Barbara Schock-Werner. Half of the costs of repair and maintenance are still borne by the Dombauverein.
On 25 August 2007, the cathedral received a new stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
in the south transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
window. With 113 square metres of glass, the window was created by the German artist Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter is a German visual artist. Richter has simultaneously produced abstract and photorealistic painted works, as well as photographs and glass pieces, thus undermining the concept of the artist’s obligation to maintain a single cohesive style.- Biography :Gerhard Richter was born in...
. It is composed of 11,500 identically sized pieces of coloured glass resembling pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s, randomly arranged by computer, which create a colorful "carpet". Since the loss of the original window in World War II, the space had been temporarily filled with plain glass. The archbishop of the cathedral, Joachim Cardinal Meisner, who had preferred a figurative depiction of 20th-century Catholic martyrs for the window, did not attend the unveiling.
World Heritage Site
In 1996, the cathedral was added to the UNESCOUNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage List of culturally important sites. In 2004 it was placed on the "World Heritage in Danger" list, as the only Western site in danger, due to plans to construct a high-rise building nearby, which would have visually impacted the site. The cathedral was removed from the List of In Danger Sites in 2006, following the authorities' decision to limit the heights of buildings constructed near and around the cathedral.
As a World Heritage Site, and with its convenient position on tourist routes, Cologne Cathedral is a major tourist attraction, the visitors including many who travel there as a Christian pilgrimage.
Visitors can climb 509 stone steps of the spiral staircase to a viewing platform about 98 m (321.5 ft) above the ground. The platform gives a scenic top view of the Rhine.
On 18 August 2005, Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
visited the cathedral during his apostolic visit to Germany, as part of World Youth Day 2005
World Youth Day 2005
The 20th World Youth Day 2005 was a Catholic youth festival that started on August 16 and continued until August 21, 2005 in Cologne, Germany. It was the first World Youth Day and foreign trip of Pope Benedict XVI, who joined the festival on August 18. This meeting was decided by the previous...
festivities. An estimated one million pilgrims visited the cathedral during this time. Also as part of the events of World Youth Day, Cologne Cathedral hosted a televised gala performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis
Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)
The Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819-1823. It was first performed on April 7, 1824 in St. Petersburg, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie,...
, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
and the London Philharmonic Choir
London Philharmonic Choir
The London Philharmonic Choir is one of the leading independent British choirs in the United Kingdom based in London. The Patron is Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy and Sir Roger Norrington is President. The choir, comprising over 200 members, holds charitable status and is governed by a...
conducted by Sir Gilbert Levine
Gilbert Levine
Sir Gilbert Levine, KC*SG is an American conductor. He is considered an "outstanding personality in the world of international music television."-Education:...
.
Architecture
Amiens Cathedral
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens , or simply Amiens Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral and seat of the Bishop of Amiens...
in terms of ground plan, style and the width to height proportion of the central nave. The plan is in the shape of a Latin Cross, as is usual with Gothic cathedrals. It has two aisles on either side, which help to support one of the very highest Gothic vaults in the world, being nearly as tall as that of the ill-fated Beauvais Cathedral, much of which collapsed. Externally the outward thrust of the vault is taken up by flying buttresses in the French manner. The eastern end has a single ambulatory, the second aisle resolving into a chevet of seven radiating chapels.
Internally, the medieval choir is more varied and less mechanical in its details than the 19th century building. It presents a French style arrangement of very tall arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
, a delicate narrow triforium
Triforium
A triforium is a shallow arched gallery within the thickness of inner wall, which stands above the nave of a church or cathedral. It may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be located as a separate level below the clerestory. It may itself have an outer wall of glass rather than...
gallery lit by windows and with detailed tracery merging with that of the windows above. The clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...
windows are tall and retain some old figurative glass in the lower sections. The whole is united by the tall shafts which sweep unbroken from the floor to their capitals at the spring of the vault. The vault is of plain quadripartite arrangement.
The choir retains a great many of its original fittings, including the carved stalls, which is made the more surprising by the fact that French Revolutionary troops had desecrated the building. A large stone statue of St Christopher looks down towards the place where the earlier entrance to the cathedral was, before its completion in the late 19th century.
The nave is enhanced by a good many 19th century stained glass windows including a set of five on the south side called the "Bayernfenster" which were a gift from Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I was a German king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.-Crown prince:...
, a set highly representative of the painterly German style of that date.
Externally, particularly from a distance, the building is dominated by its huge spires which are entirely Germanic in character, being openwork like those of Ulm, Vienna and Regensburg Cathedral
Regensburg Cathedral
The Regensburg Cathedral , dedicated to St Peter, is the most important church and landmark of the city Regensburg, Germany. It is the seat of the Catholic diocese of Regensburg...
s.
Treasures
One of the Treasures of the cathedral is the High Altar which was installed in 1322. It is constructed of black marble, with a solid slab 15 feet (4.6 m) long forming the top. The front and sides are overlaid with white marble niches into which are set figures, with the Coronation of the VirginCoronation of the Virgin
The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove,...
at the centre.
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...
dating from the 13th century, and the largest reliquary
Reliquary
A reliquary is a container for relics. These may be the physical remains of saints, such as bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or other religious figures...
in the Western world. It is traditionally believed to hold the remains of the Three Wise Men, whose bones and 2,000-year-old clothes were discovered at the opening of the shrine in 1864.
Near the sacristy
Sacristy
A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.The sacristy is usually located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building...
is the Gero-Kreuz
Gero Crucifix
The Gero Cross or Gero Crucifix , of around 965–970, is the oldest large sculpture of the crucified Christ north of the Alps, and has always been displayed in Cologne Cathedral in Germany. It was commissioned by Gero, Archbishop of Cologne, who died in 976, thus providing a terminus ante quem for...
, a large crucifix carved in oak and with traces of paint and gilding. Believed to have been commissioned around 960 for Archbishop Gero, it is the oldest large crucifix north of the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
and the earliest-known large free-standing Northern sculpture of the medieval period.
In the Sacrament Chapel is the Mailänder Madonna ("Milan Madonna"), dating from around 1290, a wooden sculpture depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. The altar of the patron saints of Cologne with an altar piece by the International Gothic
International Gothic
International Gothic is a phase of Gothic art which developed in Burgundy, Bohemia, France and northern Italy in the late 14th century and early 15th century...
painter, Stephan Lochner is in the Marienkapelle ("St. Mary's Chapel"). Other works of art are to be found in the Cathedral Treasury.
The altar also houses the relics of Saint Irmgardis
Saint Irmgardis
Saint Irmgardis, Saint Irmgard of Süchteln was a medieval saint and sovereign Countess Irmgardis of Aspel in 1013-1085...
.
Jewish tablets
Embedded in the interior wall are a pair of tablets on which are carved the provisions worked out by Archbishop Englebert II (1262–67) under which Jews were permitted to reside in Cologne.Bells
The cathedral has eleven church bells, four of which are medieval. The first was the 3.8-ton Dreikönigsglocke ("Bell of the Three Kings"), cast in 1418, installed in 1437, and recast in 1880. Two of the other bells, the Pretiosa (10.5 tons; at that time the largest bell in the Occident) and the Speciosa (5.6 tons) were installed in 1448 and remain in place today.During the 19th century, as the building neared completion, there was a desire to extend the number of bells. This was facilitated by Kaiser Wilhelm I who gave French bronze
French Bronze
French Bronze is a form of bronze typically consisting of 91% copper, 2% tin, 6% zinc, and 1% lead.-Other uses:The term French bronze was also used in connection with cheap zinc statuettes and other articles, which were finished to resemble real bronze, and some older texts call the faux-bronze...
cannon, captured in 1870–71, for this purpose. The 22 pieces of artillery were displayed outside the Cathedral on the 11 May 1872. Andreas Hamm in Frankenthal used them to cast a bell of over 27,000 kilos on the 19 August 1873. The tone was not harmonious and another attempt was made on the 13 November 1873. The Central Cathedral Association, which had agreed to take over the costs, did not want this bell either. Another attempt took place on the 3 October 1874. The colossal bell was shipped to Cologne and on the 13 May 1875, installed in the Cathedral. This Kaiserglocke was eventually dismantled in 1918 to support the German war effort.
The 24-ton St. Petersglocke
St. Petersglocke
Saint Peter's bell is the largest bell in Cologne Cathedral. It was cast in 1923 by Heinrich Ulrich in Apolda and hangs in the belfry of the south tower...
("Bell of St. Peter", "Dicke Pitter" in the Kölsch dialect), was cast in 1922 and is the largest free-swinging bell in the world. (See below: Gallery, Petersglocke)
- Consecration Bell – 0.425 tons (Wandlungsglocke)
- Vespers Bell – 0.28 tons (Mettglocke)
- Angelus Bell – 0.763 tons (Angelusglocke)
Bells of the main bell cage in the south spire:
- Hail Bell – 0.83 tons (Aveglocke)
- Chapter Bell – 1.4 tons (Kapitelsglocke)
- St Joseph's Bell – 2.2 tons (Josephglocke)
- St Ursula's Bell – 2.55 tons (Ursulaglocke)
- Bell of the Three Kings – 3.8 tons (Dreikönigsglocke)
- Pretiosa – 10.5 tons
- Speciosa – 5.6 tons
- St Peter's Bell – 24 tons (St. Petersglocke)
Church music
Cologne Cathedral has two pipe organPipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
s by Klais Orgelbau, the Transept Organ built in 1948 and the Nave Organ built in 1998. Cathedral organists have included Josef Zimmermann, Clemens Ganz
Clemens Ganz
Clemens Ganz is a German organist.Ganz studied with Hermann Schroeder and Josef Zimmermann church music and school music at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne . From 1964–1976 he was cantor at St. Marien in Köln-Kalk. From 1971–1998 he taught as professor at the Hochschule für Musik...
(1985–2001) and Winfried Bönig
Winfried Bönig
Winfried Bönig is a German organist.Bönig studied organ and church music at the Musikhochschule München with Franz Lehrndorfer from 1978 to 1984. He passed his A exam in 1982 with distinction. Afterwards he studied musicology in Augsburg . Between 1984 and 1998 he was organist of St. Josef in...
(2001).
Dimensions
| External length | 144.58 m (474.3 ft) | External width | 86.25 m (283 ft) | Width of west façade | 61.54 m (201.9 ft) | Width of transept Transept For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture... façade |
39.95 m (131.1 ft) | Width of nave Nave In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting... (with aisles, interior) |
45.19 m (148.3 ft) | Height of southern tower | 157.31 m (516.1 ft) | Height of northern tower | 157.38 m (516.3 ft) | Height of ridge turret | 109 m (357.6 ft) | Height of transept façades | 69.95 m (229.5 ft) | Height of roof ridge | 61.1 m (200.5 ft) | Inner height of nave | 43.35 m (142.2 ft) | Building area | 7914 m² (9,465.07 sq yd) | Window surface area | 10000 m² (11,959.9 sq yd) | Roof surface area | 12000 m² (14,351.88 sq yd) | Gross volume without buttresses | 407000 m³ (14,373,069.1 cu ft) |
See also
- Architecture of cathedrals and great churches
- Gero CrucifixGero CrucifixThe Gero Cross or Gero Crucifix , of around 965–970, is the oldest large sculpture of the crucified Christ north of the Alps, and has always been displayed in Cologne Cathedral in Germany. It was commissioned by Gero, Archbishop of Cologne, who died in 976, thus providing a terminus ante quem for...
- Gothic architectureGothic architectureGothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
- Gothic revival
- List of buildings
- List of highest church naves
- Middle Ages in history
Sources
- Wim Swaan, The Gothic Cathedral, Omega Books (1969), ISBN 090785348X
- Banister Fletcher, A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method.
- Howard Hubbard, Masterpieces of Western Sculpture, Thames and Hudson, ISBN 0500232784
- Wolff, Arnold, Cologne Cathedral. Its History – Its Works of Arts, Verlag (editor) Kölner Dom, Cologne: 2nd edition 2003, ISBN 9783774303423