The Cologne cathedral

There are over eighty stonemasons, roofers and other specialists constantly at work on the maintenance and restoration of the Cologne cathedral.  So in a way, though it took 632 years to build, it's really still being built. 

I look at it and imagine working on it my whole life and never seeing it completed.  People lived their whole lives--for generations--never seeing what it would look like finished.  For three hundred years it had only one tower.

In all that time, builders kept true to the original design.  The flying buttresses, vaults--everything about the cathedral--points up, intending to show strength and to point to God.  Its design and construction pushed the limits religiously, architecturally, technologically, and financially.
When it was finished, it stood as the world's tallest building at 157 meters.











If they hadn't stuck with it, it would stand like the unfinished Amiens cathedral in France.







At the top of the 157 meters, are nine meter filials.  One stands in the square below to demonstrate how tall they are.

From the ground below, they look rather small and insignificant.

Inside the towers are huge bells weighing over 4 and 5 tons.
The 24-ton 'Bell of St Peter' is the largest free-swinging bell in the world.

I climbed the 532 stairs to the top of one of the bell towers to see the view of Cologne.

The cathedral houses a reliquary said to contain the remains of the three Magi, from the Christmas story.  These relics have made Cologne Cathedral a major pilgrimage destination for centuries.

Other famous artwork and treasures from centuries gone by live in every corner of the cathedral.














I read somewhere that during WWII, the cathedral was not as destroyed as it could have been because airplanes used it as a landmark easily seen and identified from the skies.  Still, inside much restoration had to be done and frescoes like those on these ceiling vaults were redone in a modern style.

Eight hundred years from its first bricks being laid, the Cologne Cathedral still reaches for the skies.

Marien Kapelle

The real old stuff--not the replicas--is all over Germany, and I was constantly reminded of this.

Like how the Marien Kapelle in Würzburg is a real Gothic building, not a building copying the Gothic style.
It sits in the middle of the market, without even enough space around it to stand back and get a good look.  It's been there a long time and people have built up a number of other interests and buildings.

It doesn't look like a six hundred year old building inside, though.  That's because so much of Germany was damaged during WWII, and the Marien Kapelle was one of the casualties.

I wanted to see real, old stained glass, but I would have to wait for another church.  But I wondered if I would see any original stained glass at all due to all that was destroyed.

And here's one of the more mysterious things I found in the chapel.
A rooster under his feet?  Huh?

I guess that's what identifies that guy way up there as Peter?  I guess you need to figure out a system of identification like that when you're one of a hundred statues in one of hundreds of churches.

Mutiny Memorial

The British built this Gothic style tower in 1863 in memory of the soldiers who died in 1857.
It seems they really took this event to heart, as it is covered with elaborate detail and plaques filled with information of who and how many died or were wounded.

But it's a controversial bit of history, and could easily be thought of as insulting, calling the Indian freedom fighters "the enemy".

In 1972, a new plaque was put up, clarifying who the enemy and heroes really were.

The tower stands above the treeline and can be seen from a distance. But, understandably, it is not often visited.
It was even difficult to explain to a rickshaw, driver where I wanted to go. I pointed to the tower in the distance, called it by different names, including the local one of Ajitgarh, but I couldn't make myself understood by any one who wanted to find such a place.

Maybe they just didn't want to go uphill?
Who knows.
I did find it. I did photograph it. I did add it to my collection of Delhi experiences.