Architecture of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany

The Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany was built in the French Gothic Style. Its windows are high and are made of glass. The design, carvings on the choir and the huge stone statue of St. Christopher, that is located at the entrance of the cathedral are done in the French style.

Unfinished Cologne Cathedral in the year 1856

According to historians, the original design of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany was based quite closely on that of Amiens Cathedral in terms of its ground plan, style and the width to height proportion of the central nave. The floor plan is in the shape of a Latin Cross, that is very common with Gothic cathedrals. The cathedral has two aisles on either side, which help to support one of highest Gothic vaults in the world, being nearly as tall as that of the Beauvais Cathedral. The outward thrust of the Gothic vault is taken up by flying buttresses in the French manner. While the eastern end has a single ambulatory and the second aisle resolves into chevet of seven radiating chapels.

The interior of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany shows the medieval choir, that is more varied and less mechanical in its design and details than the 19th century building. The medieval choir presents a French style of arrangement of a very tall arcade, which is a delicate narrow triforium gallery lit by glass windows and with detailed tracery merging with that of the glass windows above. The clerestory windows found in the cathedral are tall and retain some old figurative glass in the lower sections. The whole cathedral is united by the tall shafts which sweep unbroken from its floor to the capitals at the spring of the vault. The Gothic vault is of plain quadripartite arrangement.

Medieval choir stalls inside the Cologne Cathedral in Germany

The medieval choir that can be found inside the cathedral retains many of its original fittings, that includes the carved stalls, which is made by the more surprising fact that the French Revolutionary troops had deserted the building. While a large stone statue of Saint Christopher looks down towards the entire cathedral where the earlier entrance to the Cologne Cathedral was, before its completion in the late 19th century.

The nave inside the cathedral has many 19th century stained glass windows including a set of five on the southern part, called the “Bayernfenster” which were a gift from Ludwig I of Bavaria. The stained glass window represents the painterly German style of that date.

Externally, particularly from a distance, Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany is dominated by its huge spires which are entirely Germanic in character, being one of the openwork like those of Regensburg Cathedrals and Ulm, Vienna.