The Frankfurt Cathedral by Simona Lamberti

The Roman Catholic imperial cathedral of St Bartholomew in Frankfurt am Main, the largest sacred building in the city, is the former election and coronation church of the Roman-German emperors and as such an important monument in the history of the empire. It was regarded as a symbol of national unity, especially in the 19th century. The cathedral was a collegiate church from 852 to 1803, but never a cathedral in the canonical sense of an episcopal church.

Today's cathedral is the fourth church on the same site. Predecessor buildings excavated since the late 19th century can be traced back to the 7th century. The early Carolingian chapel of the Königspfalz Frankfurt was the site of the Synod of Frankfurt in 794 and is closely linked to the history of Frankfurt and its historic centre. The first royal election in Frankfurt took place in 855 in the Salvatorkirche, which was consecrated in 852.

In 1239, the church was given the patronage of St Bartholomew the Apostle and the construction of today's Gothic cathedral began. It was essentially built between 1250 and 1514, when the construction of the west tower, which had begun in 1415, had to be completed without the planned lantern due to a lack of funds. This solution, unique in Central Europe, was to characterise the cityscape for centuries. It was not until after the cathedral fire in 1867 that the tower - which is still architecturally unique - was completed according to the surviving medieval plans by 1878.