Conrad II ordered the cathedral, and construction began in 1030. Speyer I was consecrated in 1061. Around 1090 Henry IV enlarged it, demolishing the eastern sections and raising the nave by about 16 feet (5 m). Speyer II was completed in 1106, the year he died. Its length is 134 meters (440 feet).
Henry IV's phase replaced the flat wooden nave ceiling with groin vaults over square bays, which the article calls one of the outstanding achievements of Romanesque architecture. The nave vault is 108 feet (33 m) high. The crypt, consecrated in 1041, covers 9,150 square feet (850 m²) with 42 groin vaults on 20 columns.
Conrad II, Henry III and Henry IV were buried here. On May 31, 1689, French soldiers pillaged the imperial graves, and the western nave collapsed in the fire. From 1854 to 1858 Heinrich Hübsch's Neo-Romanesque westwork replaced the Baroque one. UNESCO listed it in 1981.
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