Speyer Cathedral (Kaiserdom)

Speyer Cathedral (Kaiserdom) was begun in 1030 under Salian Emperor Conrad II as a dynastic burial church intended to project the power of the Salian emperors, and its scale, one of the largest religious buildings in the world at the time of construction, remains striking as the largest Romanesque church still standing today. The imperial crypt beneath the choir holds the tombs of four Holy Roman Emperors and four German kings, along with several empresses and bishops, making it one of the most significant royal burial sites in Europe. The building underwent major expansion under Emperor Henry IV in the later 11th century, who raised the nave vaulting to a then-unprecedented height and reinforced the structure with massive round-arched arcades characteristic of mature Romanesque design. The cathedral suffered severe damage when French troops burned and partially destroyed it in 1689 during the Nine Years' War, and the nave stood roofless for over a century before restoration began in the early 19th century, followed by further reconstruction after further war damage in the 20th century. Today the interior combines the recovered Romanesque structure with 19th-century murals added during restoration, and the crypt remains largely in its original medieval form. The cathedral's chronological presentation moves visitors from the nave through the choir to the imperial crypt, with a separate cathedral treasury displaying liturgical objects and archaeological finds from the tombs. Its 1981 UNESCO inscription, Germany's first, recognized both its architectural scale and its role as a burial site central to the history of the Holy Roman Empire.