Cologne Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism, Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site. It attracts an average of 20,000 people a day, that's why it is one of Germany's most visited landmarks.
The construction of the Cologne Cathedral started in 1248 and left unfinished in 1473. Work was picked up again in the 19th century and was completed in 1880. It is 144.5 metres long, 86.5 m wide and its towers are about 157 m tall. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spires and largest façade of any church in the world.
Cologne's builders had planned a grand structure to house the reliquary of the Three Kings and fit its role as a place of worship for the Holy Roman Emperor. Despite having been left incomplete during the medieval period, Cologne Cathedral eventually became unified as "a powerful testimony to the strength and persistence of Christian belief in medieval and modern Europe".