Frankfurt - Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus

Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main) is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. The city is the heart of the larger Rhine-Main metropolitan region, which has a population of more than 5.8 million and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region.

Alemanni and Franks lived there, and by 794, Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly and church synod, at which Franconofurd was first mentioned. It was one of the two capitals of Charlemagne's grandson Louis the German. Louis founded the collegiate church, rededicated in 1239 to Bartholomew the Apostle and now Frankfurt Cathedral.

Frankfurt was one of the most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire. From 855, the German kings were elected and crowned in Aachen. From 1562, the kings and emperors were crowned and elected in Frankfurt. This tradition ended in 1792.

The Frankfurter Messe ('Frankfurt Trade Fair') was first mentioned in 1150. Book trade fairs began in 1478. In 1372, Frankfurt became a Reichsstadt (Imperial Free City), directly subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and was the Free City of Frankfurt, for nearly five centuries. It lost its sovereignty upon the collapse of the empire in 1806, regained it in 1815 and then lost it again in 1866, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia.
The "Kaiserdom" is the former election and coronation church of the Roman-German emperors. The cathedral was a collegiate church from 852 to 1803, but never a cathedral in the canon law sense of an episcopal seat.

Today's church is the fourth church in the same place. The early Carolingian chapel was the place of the Synod of Frankfurt in 794. The first royal election took place in Frankfurt in 855.

In 1239 the construction of today's Gothic church began. It was essentially created between 1250 and 1514, when the construction of the west tower, which started in 1415, had to be completed without the planned lantern due to a lack of money. It was only after a fire in 1867 that the tower was completed according to the preserved plans of the Middle Ages until 1878.

The Entombment of Christ is known in art since the 11th century, though the icon was rarely seen in medieval times. At the beginning of the Renaissance the "Mise au Tombeau" got very popular in France.