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Cologne Cathedral rises beside the Rhine in the centre of Cologne, its two openwork spires dominating the city skyline. It was begun in 1248 under Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden to provide a fittingly monumental home for one of medieval Europe's most prized relics: the bones believed to be those of the Three Kings, or Magi, which had been brought to Cologne from Milan in 1164 by Archbishop Rainald of Dassel. The relics, housed in the great gilded Shrine of the Three Kings completed around 1225, made Cologne one of the foremost pilgrimage destinations of the medieval West.
The cathedral was conceived on an enormous scale in the High Gothic style, inspired by the French cathedrals of Amiens and Beauvais. The choir was consecrated in 1322, but the immense ambition of the design outran the money and patience available, and in 1473 construction was halted with the south tower only partly built. For more than three centuries a medieval crane stood atop the unfinished tower, a famous landmark of an incomplete cathedral.
The building was finally completed in the nineteenth century during a wave of Romantic nationalism and Gothic revival. Crucially, the original medieval plans for the west façade were rediscovered, allowing the cathedral to be finished essentially as its medieval builders had intended. Work resumed in 1842 and the structure was completed in 1880, an event celebrated as a moment of German national unity. On completion its 157-metre towers made it the tallest building in the world, a title it held until 1884.
During the Second World War, Allied bombing flattened much of central Cologne, but the cathedral, though hit by some fourteen bombs, remained standing amid the rubble, an image that became a symbol of survival. Restoration of war damage and the constant battle against weathering and pollution mean that the cathedral is, famously, never entirely free of scaffolding. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, and was placed briefly on the List of World Heritage in Danger (2004–2006) over plans for nearby high-rise buildings that threatened its setting.
