Speyer Cathedral

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Speyer Cathedral (1981); The Largest Surviving Romanesque Church In The World, Consecrated 1061, With Eight German Emperors And Kings Buried In Its Crypt · Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate

Speyer Cathedral is the largest surviving Romanesque church in the world and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. Begun around 1030 under the Salian emperor Conrad II and consecrated in 1061, it is a red sandstone basilica of roughly 134 m with four towers, two domes and an interior that is close to bare: pale stone, round arches, a nave that marches east without ornament to distract you. That austerity is the point, and it is why the building works on people who find Gothic cathedrals fussy. Under the choir lies the largest Romanesque crypt in Europe, a low forest of candy-striped arches over the graves of eight German emperors and kings. The west front is not original: French troops wrecked the western end of the nave in 1689 and what you photograph from the square was rebuilt in the nineteenth century, which guidebooks tend to skip. Speyer suits anyone drawn to early medieval architecture or imperial history, and it pairs oddly well with the Technik Museum down the road, which is why families come. Twenty minutes from Mannheim, forty-five from Heidelberg.

Domplatz, Speyer, on the Upper Rhine between Mannheim and Karlsruhe, Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

The cathedral is open daily all year and entry to the nave is free, with a donation asked at the door. Opening runs roughly 9 am to 7 pm in the warmer months and shorter in winter, with a later start on Sunday mornings because of services - confirm. Sightseeing stops during mass: the nave is restricted or cleared, and for a funeral, an ordination or a diocesan occasion the whole building can shut to visitors for hours with little notice. The crypt, the Kaisersaal and the tower climb keep their own shorter hours, are ticketed separately, close in storms and high wind, and may not run at all in midwinter - confirm before you plan the climb. Organ recitals are usual on summer afternoons.

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