Fotoeins Friday: Speyer’s Imperial Cathedral at night
In the German state of Rheinland-Palatinate, one thousand years of history are present in the shape of a Latin cross within one of the largest and most important examples of Romanesque architecture in the country. Under the directive of Salian emperor Konrad II. (Conrad the Second), construction for the Kaiserdom zu Speyer (Speyer Cathedral) began in 1030 AD/CE and consecrated in 1061. As a show of imperial power, Konrad II, seven other emperors and kings, four queens, and a series of bishops were buried in the cathedral’s crypt. Konrad II, founder of the Salian dynasty (1024-1125), was the great-great-grandson of Otto I who founded the Ottonian Dynasty (919-1024) and commissioned the construction of an abbey which would eventually become the Magdeburg Cathedral. In 1981, Speyer’s imperial cathedral received the high distinction of UNESCO World Heritage Site.
My thanks to the city of Speyer for providing access, and to Romantic Germany for their friendly advice and support in various cities along the Rhine river. I made the photos above on 20 November 2015. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-86m.
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5 Responses to “Fotoeins Friday: Speyer’s Imperial Cathedral at night”
Speyer is still in my to do list of places to visit in Germany for a long time. I guess ever since we had that time period in history classes…
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Hi, Timo. Depending on what you’d like to see and do, Speyer can be seen in a day, although I did it slow and took two, because I’ve been learning about Jewish history. The same could be said about Worms, and the great thing is the distances aren’t very large in the stretch between Karlsruhe and Mannheim.
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These old cities are just wonderful, I remember we even had to build some paper replicas of some of their sights…
Though these places can be visited within a day or two I still need to consider going there as a family and that adds usually a day or two 🙂
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I understand 🙂 Speyer’s Maximilianstrasse (“Einkaufsstrasse”) leads to the Dom. There are also the Technik Museum Speyer and Sea Life Speyer, both which I didn’t have time to visit, but I imagine would be good (better?) for the entire family.
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[…] Otto the Great was head of the Ottonian dynasty (919-1024), and great-great-grandfather to Conrad the Second (Konrad II). The latter became king of the Salian dynasty (1024-1125) and commissioned in 1030 AD/CE the construction of the Speyer Imperial Cathedral. […]
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