Frankfurt Cathedral (Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus)

Frankfurt Cathedral, formally the Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus, rises above the Römerberg old town on the site of a Carolingian royal chapel first documented in 852. Construction of the current Gothic hall church began in the 13th century and continued into the 15th, with the distinctive red sandstone tower completed in 1415 after decades of intermittent work. From 1356, under Emperor Charles IV's Golden Bull, the church served as the site where the seven Prince-Electors chose the Holy Roman Emperor, and from 1562 to 1792 it hosted the coronation ceremonies themselves, including those of Joseph II and Francis II. Despite this imperial role, the building was not formally elevated to cathedral status until 1935, when the Diocese of Limburg designated it as such; before that it functioned as a collegiate church dedicated to Saint Bartholomew. The interior preserves the Wahlkapelle (Election Chapel), where electors cast ballots before an altar depicting the Coronation of the Virgin, along with a late-Gothic sandstone Crucifixion group and choir stalls from the 15th century. The cathedral's museum, housed in the cloister, exhibits vestments, reliquaries, and archaeological finds from the Carolingian and Ottonian chapels beneath the current structure, displayed in a broadly chronological sequence from Merovingian burial finds to imperial-era treasures. The building suffered severe damage in Allied bombing raids in March 1944, which gutted the interior and destroyed the roof; reconstruction, based on surviving plans and salvaged fragments, was completed in 1953, with further restoration of the tower and facade carried out into the 1990s. Visitors today see a structure that is substantially a careful postwar reconstruction over medieval foundations, with the archaeological garden beside the cathedral exposing excavated remains of the Carolingian and Ottonian palace chapels.