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Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus
Corpus Christi Feast
Photo: Michael Lahanas
Frankfurt am Main
Saint Bartholomeus's Cathedral (Dom Sankt Bartholomäus) is a Gothic building located in Frankfurt, Germany.
Frankfurt Cathedral is the main church of Frankfurt and was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundation of an earlier church from the Merovingian time. From 1356 onwards, kings of the Holy Roman Empire were elected in this Catholic church, and from 1562 to 1792, emperors were crowned here. It has been recognized as symbol for the national unity of Germany, especially during the 19th century.
Although it has never been a bishop's seat, its role in imperial politics made the church to one of the most important buildings of Imperial history and justified the use of the term (imperial) cathedral by the people of Frankfurt for the church since the 18th century.
In 1867, the cathedral was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt in its present style.
Between October 1943 and March 1944 the old town of Frankfurt, the biggest old Gothic town of Central Europe had been destroyed by six bombardments of the Allied Forces. The physical devastation of the old imperial town was intended to reduce public support for the war. The greatest losses occurred on the 22nd of March 1944. Over one thousand buildings of the old town, the most of them being half-timbered houses were destroyed. The cathedral suffered severe damage and the interior was burned out completely. The cathedral had been reconstructed in the 1950s. The height of the cathedral is 95 m.
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