A city fire on Good Friday 1207 destroyed the earlier church, and Archbishop Albert I of Käfernburg chose a Gothic design. Work began on the choir in 1209, stopped after 1274, and resumed in 1477 under Archbishop Ernst of Saxony with the two towers. An ornamental cross placed on the north tower in 1520 completed the cathedral.
The article calls it the oldest Gothic cathedral in Germany, though the choir remains strongly Romanesque. The interior is 394 feet (120 m) long, with a ceiling 105 feet (32 m) high. The body calls the south tower slightly higher, but its figures give the north tower 331 feet (100.98 m) against 326 feet (99.25 m) for the south.
Looting in 1631 destroyed much of the interior. Karl Friedrich Schinkel led repairs in 1826 to 1834. Bombing in 1945 destroyed vaults, the west facade and the Röver organ, and the cathedral reopened in 1955.
Comments