Begun in 1248, the con­struc­tion of this Goth­ic mas­ter­piece took place in sev­er­al stages and was not com­plet­ed until 1880. Over sev­en cen­turies, suc­ces­sive builders were inspired by the same faith and a spir­it of absolute fideli­ty to the orig­i­nal plans. Apart from its excep­tion­al intrin­sic val­ue and the artis­tic mas­ter­pieces it con­tains, Cologne Cathe­dral tes­ti­fies to the endur­ing strength of Euro­pean Chris­tian­i­ty.