Kölner Dom

Now this is what we came to see, the Cologne Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter. It was begun in 1248 to house the relics of the Three Kings, which had been taken by Frederick Barbarossa after conquering Milan. He left them to the Archbishop Rainald, who brought them to Cologne in 11 64. A shrine was forged-- a big blingy gold thing that looks like a church-- for the relics sometime after 1190.

Building on it stopped in 1473, with intermittent work being done until the Sixteenth Century when it stopped completely. In the Nineteenth Century, the new Protestant Prussian rulers, both out of their desire to make nice with the Catholic hierarchy, the cultural and dynastic interest in the Middle Ages, and wanting to connect themselves to the long history of German kings and the cathedral, began the work again. Most of it was paid for by private donations, with the Prussians kicking in the rest. Finally finished in 1880, nine years after German unification, Kaiser Wilhelm I attended the opening. It was the world's largest building for four years, until the Washington Monument was completed.

It didn't fare so well in World War II. Besides being used as a landmark by Allied pilots to navigate to bombing targets, it suffered a great deal of damage itself. Hit fourteen times by aerial bombardment, the towers still stood, but the roof and insides were quite damaged. It became the backdrop for a tank battle on March 6, 1945 between a German Panther and tanks from the US Third Armored Division. You can watch film of it on you tube though it contains actual battle footage so just a head's up. Will link down below.

The war damage was mostly repaired by 1956, but it's again undergoing some sort of renovation. Seems like a lot of German churches we've seen are covered in scaffolding, so we'll have to come back.

We took so many pictures here. There are two of the reliquary of the Three Kings near the end, and the the fifth one in is one of the finials from the roof. This was a very beautiful church, inside and out. It had those amazing Medieval gargoyles and a lot of very nice statuary outside, so two posts of pictures incoming, and of course, more on the facebook page.

Speaking of incoming: here's the tank battle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBI9d0-IfEM&amp…Baca lagi