Speyer - Cathedral

Speyer gained importance, when the Salian dynasty entered the political stage with Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II. He commissioned the construction of of this church, known as the "Imperial Cathedral of Speyer". lt was planned to be the largest cathedral worldwide. A display of the Emperor´s power, that was - before the "Investiture Controversy" - secular and ecclesiastical.

This "blueprint" from about 1025/1030 got changed later and the even enlarged cathedral was completed in 1106, the year Conrad´s grandson Emperor Henry IV died.

The crypt of the cathedral, consecrated in 1041, is the largest Romanesque columned hall crypt in Europe, with an area of 850 m².
The crypt is so large, that it is impossible to give an impression by just one photo, so I´ll upload a couple of shots. Seen here is the central chapel of the crypt. The burial site of the Salian (and other) emperors is in another part of the crypt.

As the history of the cathedral is really complex, I add the Wikipedia-links here:

english:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer_Cathedral
french:
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath%C3%A9drale_Notre-Dame-de-l%27A...
german:
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyerer_Dom

"Europaeische Stiftung Kaiserdom zu Speyer" has a very good website, but only in German:
www.dom-speyer.de/index.html