Strasbourg Cathedral
Saturday, 8 April 2023 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union General , UNESCO World Heritage
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The west front © Claude Truong-Ngoc/cc-by-sa-3.0
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Strasbourg Cathedral or the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg (
French : Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, or Cathédrale de Strasbourg,
German : Liebfrauenmünster zu Straßburg or Straßburger Münster), also known as
Strasbourg Minster , is a
Catholic cathedral in
Strasbourg ,
Alsace , France. Although considerable parts of it are still in
Romanesque architecture , it is widely considered to be among the finest examples of
Rayonnant Gothic architecture . Architect
Erwin von Steinbach is credited for major contributions from 1277 to his death in 1318, and beyond through his son Johannes von Steinbach, and his grandson Gerlach von Steinbach, who succeeded him as chief architects. The Steinbachs’s plans for the completion of the cathedral were not followed through by the chief architects who took over after them, and instead of the originally envisioned two
spires , a single,
octagonal tower with an elongated, octagonal crowning was built on the northern side of the west facade by master
Ulrich von Ensingen and his successor,
Johannes Hültz . The construction of the cathedral, which had started in the year 1015 and had been relaunched in 1190, was finished in 1439.
At 142 metres (466 feet), Strasbourg Cathedral was the world’s tallest building from 1647 to 1874 (227 years), when it was surpassed by St. Nikolai’s Church , Hamburg . Today it is the sixth-tallest church in the world and the highest still standing extant structure built entirely in the Middle Ages .
The rose window and gallery of the Apostles © Ralph Hammann/cc-by-sa-4.0
Described by
Victor Hugo as a “gigantic and delicate marvel”, and by
Goethe as a “sublimely towering, wide-spreading tree of God”, the cathedral is visible far across the plains of
Alsace and can be seen from as far off as the
Vosges Mountains or the
Black Forest on the other side of the
Rhine . The reddish-brown
sandstone from the
Vosges mountains gives the cathedral its distinctive colour.
The construction, and later maintenance, of the cathedral is supervised by the
Fondation de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame (“Foundation of Our Lady”) since at least 1224. The
Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame , a municipal museum located in the Foundation’s buildings, displays original works of art from the cathedral, such as sculptures and stained-glass, but also the surviving original medieval buildings plans.
In 1988, the Strasbourg Cathedral was inscribed on the
UNESCO World Heritage List along with the historic centre of the city (called the “
Grande Île “) because of its outstanding Gothic architecture.
Read more on
VisitStrasbourg.fr – Strasbourg Cathedral ,
Visit.Alsace – Strasbourg Cathedral and
Wikipedia Strasbourg Cathedral (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
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Johns Hopkins University & Medicine - Coronavirus Resource Center -
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GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
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UN Human Development Index -
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Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
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