Story
The story of Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg
Stand in the Place de la Cathédrale and look up: at 142 metres, this cathedral was the tallest building in the world from 1647 to 1874 – for 227 years. Its reddish-brown sandstone from the Vosges mountains gives it that warm colour. Work started in 1015, was relaunched in 1190 and was finished in 1439. The architect Erwin von Steinbach shaped the west front from 1277 until his death in 1318, and his son and grandson carried on.
They planned two spires, but their successors built just one octagonal tower on the north side. Victor Hugo called it a 'gigantic and delicate marvel', and Goethe a 'sublimely towering, wide-spreading tree of God'. It can be seen from the Vosges and even from the Black Forest across the Rhine.
In 1988 it joined the UNESCO World Heritage List together with the Grande Île.
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