Speyer Cathedral

The Imperial Cathedral in Speyer is one of the most important architectural monuments of the Romanesque period and the largest preserved Romanesque church in Europe. As the last resting place of Salic, Staufen and Habsburg rulers, the Speyer Cathedral remains a symbol of the Empire in the Middle Ages. The history of the cathedral is considerably varied: construction and destruction, war and peace, glory and misery have left their mark on the cathedral and the city of Speyer itself over the centuries. The oldest part of the building is the cathedral crypt, completed in 1039 and consecrated in 1041. The cathedral with its six towers used to form the centrepiece of a group of buildings, and it has only stood as an isolated monument in a park landscape since the 19th century.