Speyer Cathedral: the largest Romanesque temple in the world

The Cathedral in the German city of Speyer - Speyer Dom - is considered the most magnificent Christian church built in the Romanesque style. He is the main symbol of this picturesque city in the middle of the Rhine. And in the crypt of the cathedral is perhaps the most beautiful tomb in the world.

The Cathedral in the city of Speyer was founded in 1030 at the direction of Emperor Konrad II as the family tomb of the ruling dynasty of the Sallic Franks, tracing its lineage from Charlemagne. The ambitious construction was aimed at the construction of the largest cathedral in Europe at that time; for this reason, the cathedral acquired a truly imperial scale. Its length is 134 meters, width - 37.6 meters, and the height along the main nave is 33 meters. Speyer Cathedral is even today larger than other famous monuments of Romanesque architecture, for example, the famous Cathedral in Pisa.

The monumental temple of reddish sandstone overlooking the Rhine is visible from afar thanks to the four tall towers at its corners. The place chosen for its construction is not accidental: it was here, for a thousand years before the construction of the cathedral, first the sanctuary of one of the Celtic goddesses, then, with the arrival of the Romans - the Capitol, and, finally, in the middle of the IV century - the first Christian church in these places ...

In the history of Speyer himself Cathedral and today a lot of obscure and confusing. In 1061 it was completed and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Several decades later, another emperor, Henry IV, started the rebuilding of a virtually new cathedral. The height of the main nave was increased, and its wooden floors were replaced with stone cross vaults. The supports of the latter were reinforced with additional columns. Moreover, each span of the vaults of the main nave was equal in size to two spans of the side naves. Introduced into local architecture by Lombardy craftsmen and known as the linked system, this architectural innovation was subsequently used many times in the construction of other Germanic temples. The carvings framing the windows of the transept and the arcature bands on the facades of the cathedral are apparently also of Italian origin.

Despite the restructuring - this and subsequent - the plan of the cathedral remained the same as it was conceived: a three-aisled basilica in the form of a Latin cross, which has a spacious crypt, a vestibule on the west side and four already mentioned towers. The height of the two western towers is 71.2 meters, the eastern ones - 65.6 meters.

On the cathedral square, there is a stone pool with a capacity of 1560 liters. According to ancient sources, during the Middle Ages, it was filled to the brim with wine on holidays - it was enough for all residents to Speyer and the pilgrims who came to the city could treat themselves to them wholeheartedly for free. Interestingly, the basin served as a kind of borderline between the jurisdiction of the imperial city of Speyer and the local bishopric: at the edge of the basin, the secular power ended and the ecclesiastical power came into its own. It was the latter that filled the roomy pool with the famous Rhine wine for the holidays - it is difficult to get drunk with it, but, as you know, it raises the mood perfectly.

Anyone visiting Speyer Cathedral will certainly strive to get into its crypt. From the burials in this majestic underground structure, you can study the history of Europe during the High Middle Ages - well, or at least that part of it called Germany. In the crypt of the cathedral lie the German emperors and empresses, kings and bishops. Conrad II, three Henrys in a row - III, IV and V, as well as representatives of the Staufen dynasty - the second wife of Frederick Barbarossa Empress Beatrice, his daughter Agnes and son - King Philip of Swabia. Here, but a little later, at the turn of the XIII and XIV centuries, the kings Rudolf of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau found rest.

Speyer Cathedral is directly related to the history of the Crusades. Under its vaults in 1146, the famous sermon of the great Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, who called on Emperor Conrad III and his vassals - several thousand German knights - to take part in the II Crusade.

In the inner courtyard of the cathedral - the cloister - strictly in the middle is the sculptural group 'Mount of Olives'. Its first version, created in the 15th century, has not survived, so a new one was created in the middle of the 19th century by the sculptor Gottfried Rennes.

Everything in the cathedral that survived the Reformation and a protracted series of religious wars, at the end of the 18th century, suffered a new misfortune. The troops of revolutionary France, which entered Speyer in 1784, plundered and desecrated the magnificent cathedral. The altars of the temple were smashed, and in it the atheists set up a stable. The time was troubled, and in 1806 the cathedral began to be slowly pulled apart for building materials.

Only after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Vienna Congress of 1815, which ended their era, when the Palatinate fell to the Kingdom of Bavaria and Speyer again became the center of the bishopric, did the restoration of the old cathedral begin. By decree of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, large-scale restoration work took place here from 1846 to 1859. Artists Johann Schraudolph and Josef Schwarzmann decorated the interior of the cathedral with skillful painting. And the architect Heinrich Hübsch recreated the western facade - of course, in the neo-Romanesque style.

A century later, a major restoration was again undertaken in the cathedral. At the end of the fifties of the twentieth century, many later alterations were removed, which distorted the original appearance of the temple. The restorers cleared the floor of the cathedral to its original level, and the majestic temple regained its inner completeness, its former volume and its original proportions.

One of the main attractions of Speyer Cathedral is its large organ with a unique sound. The names of the outstanding German organists Ludwig Doerr and Leo Kremer are associated with the history of this temple.

In 1981, an act of historical justice took place: the cathedral in the city of Speyer was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

However, the cathedral with almost a thousand-year history is not only a monumental monument of Romanesque architecture, but also a functioning Catholic church. Its walls remember the prayers of many thousands of pilgrims who have visited it in modern times, solemn divine services that were performed here by popes Pius XI and John Paul II, as well as visits by heads of state from many countries of the world. In the 21st century, the annual number of visitors to Speyer Cathedral has grown markedly, thanks in large part to the efforts of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl until his death in 2017. who headed the board of trustees of this historic church.