Speyer - Cathedral

Speyer gained importance, when the Salian dynasty entered the political stage with Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II. He commissioned the construction of of this church, known as the "Imperial Cathedral of Speyer". It was planned to be the largest cathedral worldwide. A display of the Emperor´s power, that was - before the "Investiture Controversy" - secular and ecclesiastical.

This "blueprint" from about 1025/1030 got changed later and the even enlarged cathedral was completed in 1106, the year Conrad´s grandson Emperor Henry IV died.

Standing outside (north) looking to the transept, the crossing tower and the two eastern towers (one is behind the dome). The little "shack" in the corner is the chapel of St. Afra. Here Henry IV was buried in the (then) unconsecrated chapel from 1106 to 1111, when Pope Paschalis II revoked the ban, which had been in effect since 1088.

A special architectural feature seen here is the "dwarf gallery" that runs all around the cathedral under the roof. This is just a kind of arcaded gallery, that is just a decorative element similar to a "blind arcade". This "dwarf galleries" were popular in the Rhine area (Germany, Belgium) and in some parts of Italy. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has six rings of dwarf galleries.

As the history of the cathedral is really complex, I add the Wikipedia-links here:

english:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer_Cathedral
french:
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath%C3%A9drale_Notre-Dame-de-l%27A...
german:
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyerer_Dom

"Europaeische Stiftung Kaiserdom zu Speyer" has a very good website, but only in German:
www.dom-speyer.de/index.html