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.

Looking west through the left aisle. When the cathedral was constructed, the builders were able to vault the two aisles, but not the 14 meters wide central nave. This got a wooden ceiling.
When Emperor Henry IV took over in 1090, he had the eastern sections demolished and had them replaced by an enlarged structure. The nave then was elevated and the wooden ceiling replaced with a groin vault of square bays.

Not many people are here today. When Bernard of Clairvaux preached the second crusade here in December 1146, the church was probably packed to bursting.


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