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The Romanesque Imperial Cathedral at Speyer

Before we started our pilgrimage, we visited the imperial cathedral in Speyer with a guided tour the evening before..

Speyer is one of the oldest cities in Germany. In the Middle Ages, Speyer was a free imperial city and one of the most important cities of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Between 1816 and 1945, Speyer was the seat of the Bavarian administration of the Palatinate and today belongs to Rhineland-Palatinate as an independent city.

Speyer is widely known for its imperial and Marian cathedral. It is the world's largest Romanesque church still standing and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981.

The Salian king and later emperor Conrad II probably had the construction begun in 1025 with the aim of building the largest church in the West. Neither Conrad II nor his son Henry III lived to see the completion of the work. Henry III donated the Speyer Gospels for the consecration of the high altar in 1046. It was not until the reign of his grandson Henry IV that the building was consecrated in 1061. The cathedral served as the burial place of the Salians.


The Salians

Stammbaum der Salier

Pictures of Speyer and its cathedral

  • Pilgrim group
  • St. James pilgrimFor the 2000th anniversary of the city of Speyer in 1990, Bishop Anton Schlembach gave the city a bronze figure of a pilgrim of St James.
  • The Old MünzeThe Neue Kaufhaus am Markt has stood on the site of the Alte Münze since 1748.
  • St. George FountainA memorial from 1930 for Speyer soldiers who fell in the First World War
  • Maximilan street
  • Altpörtel
  • Historic Town Hall
  • The Imperial CathedralLarge and powerful, the city's landmark has been towering for 1000 years.
  • The patron saints
  • Romanesque portal
  • In the cathedral
  • Romanesque toad at the portal
  • Side view of the cathedral
  • The Dome BowlThe shell on the ground shows the Begon of the Way of St. James
  • Organ, 2011, Seifert Companywith 87 stops, 4 manuals
  • Crypt
  • Kings King's relief on the right from the year 480
  • Konrad II, Heinrich III, Heinrich IV and Heinrich VKing's relief on the left from the year 1480
  • Here rests Emperor Henry V.

Epitaph of Rudolf of Habsburg at the entrance to the Imperial Crypt

Rudolf v. Habsburg

Click on him!

Lying in the imperial tomb:
Heinrich IV.
Heinrich III.
Konrad II.
Gisela, Wife Konrads II.
Berta, Wife Heinrichs IV.
Adolf von Nassau
Albrecht of Austria
Rudolf von Habsburg
Beatrix of Burgundy, 2nd wife of Frederick Barbarossa and her daughter Agnes
Philip of Swabia
Heinrich V.


Links: http://www.kaiserdom-virtuell.de/


 

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to Germersheim shell sign right