In my trip to Germany I have visited the beautiful Romanesque cathedral of Speyer, dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Stephen. It was begun under the emperor Conrad I in 1030 and finished under Henry IV in 1106. In 1689, during the French occupation, the church was damaged by a fire and in the 18th century, the architect I.M. Neumann tried to reconstruct it in the Romanesque style, but he also added in 1772-1778 a Baroque western block. In 1805 there was a project for demolishing the church and transform the western block in a triumphal arch dedicated to Napoleon, but the building was saved by his wife, that visited the church in person. In 1854-1858 the western block was replaced by one in the Romanesque style, influenced by that time's ideas. In this period, all the interior was decorated by neo-Romanesque paintings and historical panels, attributed to Schrandolf and its atelier. Since 1957 the paintings and the painted plaster were removed for restoring its original aspect. The cathedral is the most important and largest Romanesque church of the German Empire and is characterized by the equilibrium of the eastern and western blocks, which frame the nave and the raised transept, therefore by the symmetry of the two towers and one dome of each block. The simple exterior has on the walls two rows of windows and one of columns, while the apse has a row of blind arches and one of normal arches. The narthex contains in the wall niches the statues of the four Salic emperors and four kings, which are buried here in tombs in the main of the three naves of the crypt, which has also three apses like the church itself. The interior of the cathedral contains columns with nice capitals, some of the frescos of 1846-1853 and two main altars at different heights on the stairs of the presbytery, over which is suspended an iron crown.

I liked the cathedral very much because of its stunning architecture, but the interior doesn't have many works of art and it's interesting, like the exterior, almost only for its architecture. I think also that, although most of the 18th century frescos were removed, it can be done also for the remaining paintings and for one of the two main altars (which is modern), because they are in contrast with the original architecture of the church. Also the main façade is not original, but obviously there are not any possible solutions. I think that the cathedral is absolutely worth to be visited and justifies its inscription on the WHL.

Photo: Speyer - Cathedral