Mainz - Cathedral

The St. Martin's Cathedral, a predominantly romanesque structure, with many gothic and some baroque extensions, is in the very center of the city of Mainz.

Archbishop Willigis of Mainz, an important political player, had the construction of a cathedral started end of the 10th century. This basilica was (already!) completed 1009. A day before consecration in August 1009, the new cathedral was illuminated by torches - and burnt down completely. So finally 1036 Archbishop Bardo completed the church and it got consecrated in the presence of Conrad II.

Another fire in 1081 damaged the cathedral. With the support of Henry IV the reconstruction started around 1100. For the next years "magistri comacin", highly specialised stone masons from the Lombardy left their marks here.

In 1184 Frederick I Barbarossa hold one of the biggest parties of medieval times here, for the accolade of his sons, a ceremony that took place inside the cathedral.

During the Thirty Years' War swedish troops looted the cathedral, so some parts of the former treasury are now in amuseum in Uppsala.

The "Republic of Mainz", a product of the French Revolution, was the first democratic state on German territory. The state was represented in Paris by Georg Forster, who, as a boy, had been in the Pacific with Captain Cook. During the time of the republic the cathedral was used as a piggery, later a military hospital. All furniture was either sold or used for heating up the building. The time of the republic ended, when Prussia cannonaded Mainz, what damaged the cathedral severely.

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The carving on the left side of the portal shows two grim lions and a ram in the middle, a very common theme, that as well can be seen in nearby Speyer. On the right a griffon. The artistic style of the lions is very dynamic, they are in front of the capitals.