Cologne Cathedral

In 313 it was the house of the early Christians in Cologne. Over the next 500 years it was expanded then destroyed by fire, then rebuilt in the 1200's and 1300's and  finally completed in the 1800's as more than 700 people worked 38 years.

The towers are 515 high. 11,000 yards of stain glass windows compose images of Holy Scripture. Inside the gold Shrine of the The Magi rest three bodies, purportedly the first Gentiles to visit and worship the infant Christ. For me the Gero-Crucifix was most moving. It features the oldest surviving monumental crucifix from north of the alps. Life sized, it was carved in 970s. It depicts Jesus not suffering and not triumphant--but with eyes closed....dead....he paid the price for our sins. As they guide said, great art and powerful theology.