Frankfurt Cathedral

Frankfurt Cathedral (), officially Imperial Dome of Saint Bartholomew (), is a Roman Catholic Gothic church located in the heart of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew.

It is the largest religious building in the city and a former collegiate church. Despite its common English name, it has never been an actual cathedral (episcopal see). Still, it is called the ''Kaiserdom'' (an "imperial great church" or imperial cathedral) or simply the ''Dom'' due to its importance as former election and coronation church of the Holy Roman Empire. As one of the significant buildings of the Empire's history, it was a symbol of national unity, especially in the 19th century.

The present church is the third church on the same site. Since the late 19th century, excavations have revealed buildings that can be traced back to the seventh century. The cathedral's history is closely linked with the general history of Frankfurt and Frankfurt's old town because it was associated with the religious counterpart of the Royal Palace in Frankfurt.

History

Frankfurt Cathedral was an imperial collegiate church, termed Dom in German – a synecdoche for all collegiate churches used totum pro parte also for cathedrals -, and thus traditionally translated as cathedral in English, though Frankfurt has never been a bishop's seat. St. Bartholomew's is the main church of Frankfurt and was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundation of an earlier church from the Merovingian time.

This earlier church which stood on the site of today's cathedral, the ''Salvator Basilica'' of the Frankfurt ''Königspfalz'' (Royal Palace), was originally founded on September 1, 852 by the East Franconian King Louis the German and consecrated by the Archbishop of Mainz Rabanus Maurus. The palace itself (of which the foundations can be seen next to the cathedral as an excavation site) was created at the beginning of the 9th century under Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne, and replaced a royal court of the Merovingians of the 7th century, who in turn had conquered the area around Frankfurt am Main from the Alemanni.

From the 11th century onwards, the royal ''Pfalz'' lost its importance as an itinerary residence of the German kings. It was only in the Hohenstaufen period, around the middle of the 12th century, under Conrad III, that the ''pfalz'' was again used for '' Hoftage'' (gatherings of the mighty of the Empire). Soon afterwards the palace was given up and replaced by houses of city residents who used its thick walls for cellars, but the Palace Church was gradually replaced by the Gothic cathedral. The '' Stift'' that owned the church was first called ''Salvatorstift'', later ''Bartholomäusstift''. This community of canons was the host of the cathedral for almost 1,000 years from its foundation in 852 until secularization in 1803.

Since 1356, when the Golden Bull of 1356 was issued by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, emperors of the Holy Roman Empire were elected in this collegiate church as Kings of the Romans (see: '' List of royal and imperial elections in the Holy Roman Empire''), and from 1562 to 1792, emperors-elect were crowned here. The imperial elections were held in the ''Wahlkapelle'', a chapel on the south side of the choir (''Hochchor'') built for this purpose in 1425 (see the plan below) and the anointing and crowning of the emperors-elect as King of the Romans took place before the central altar–believed to enshrine part of the head of St. Bartholomew – in the crossing of the church, at the entrance to the choir (See the Plan to the right).

When the city of Frankfurt secularized, it appropriated the remaining Catholic churches and their endowments of earning assets, however, leaving the usage of the church buildings to the existing Catholic parishes. Thus, St. Bartholomew's became the city's dotation churches, owned and maintained by the city but used by Catholic or Lutheran congregations.

St. Bartholomew's was seen as symbol for national unity in Germany, especially during the 19th century. Although it had never been a bishop's seat, it was the largest church in Frankfurt, and its role in imperial politics, including the crowning of medieval German emperors, made the church one of the most important buildings of Imperial history.

In 1867, St. Bartholomew's was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt in its present style. During World War II, between October 1943 and March 1944, the old town of Frankfurt, the biggest old Gothic town in Central Europe, was devastated by six bombardments of the Allied Air Forces. The most significant losses occurred in an attack by the Royal Air Force on 22 March 1944, when more than a thousand buildings of the old town, most of them half-timbered houses, were destroyed.

St. Bartholomew's suffered severe damage; the interior was burned out completely. The building was reconstructed in the 1950s. The height of the spire is .

Frankfurt Cathedral Choir School

The Frankfurt Cathedral Choir School (German: ''Frankfurter Domsingschule''), founded in 2011, is a mixed ecumenical children's and youth choir, which accompanies not only mass and evensongs, but also official receptions and openings. The ''Frankfurter Domsingschule'' offers any singer, regardless of their religious affiliation, age-based, free vocal basic training at regular rehearsals and valuable one-on-one and group vocal training or early musical education. This extensive basic training is unique for Frankfurt.

Notable people associated with the cathedral

* Conrad III of Dhaun, former provost
* Madern Gerthener, stonemason and architect who designed the cathedral
* Johannes Jeep, organist
* Joseph Weyland, Bishop of Fulda
* Hans Abel, artist contributing to the stained glass

;Notable burials
* Johannes Karl von und zu Franckenstein, Prince-Bishop of Worms
* Günther von Schwarzburg, anti-king and member of the House of Schwarzburg

Gallery

File:Frankfurt Am Main-Archaeologischer Garten-Ansicht vom Domturm-20110925.jpg, Remains of the royal palace hall (pfalz), founded in 852
File:Frankfurt Am Main-St Bartholomaeus-Dom von Sueden nach dem Dombrand-1868.jpg, View from the south after the fire of 1867
File:Frankfurt Am Main-Luftbild Bildstelle Generalbauinspektion-1942-44-932.657.jpg, Frankfurt on the Main: 1940s Aerial photograph from the northeast; ''Cathedral'' (left); in the background: '' St. Paul's Church''
File:Frankfurt Cathedral Tower Detail.jpg, The tower
File:Frankfurt Am Main-H Worms-Stadtansicht vom Muehlberg.jpg, View from ''Sachsenhaeuser Berg'' (Mountain of Sachsenhausen) to the north, 1845
File:Frankfurt Cathedral Organ.jpg, The organ
File:Frankfurt Cathedral Vaults.JPG, Vaulted ceilings
File:Frankfurt 2018-10-07a.jpg, ''Wahlkapelle'' (the chapel where the votes for the imperial elections were cast)
File:Mk Frankfurt Dom Grundriss.png, Plan
File:Mk Frankfurt Dom Baugeschichte de.gif, Historical development of the current building; colors distinguish its various architectural styles.

File:Rooftopper on top of Frankfurts Kaiserdom.jpg, A rooftopper on top of Frankfurts Kaiserdom
File:Frankfurt Am Main-Altstadt-Zerstoerung-Luftbild 1944.jpg, 1944 Aerial photograph of the bombed cathedral during World War 2

See also

* List of Gothic Cathedrals in Europe
* List of royal and imperial elections in the Holy Roman Empire

References

Further reading

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External links

Dompfarrei St. Bartholomäus

Domturm

Frankfurter Domsingschule
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{{Authority control

Roman Catholic cathedrals in Hesse
Roman Catholic churches in Frankfurt
Gothic hall churches in Germany
Frankfurt-Altstadt
16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Germany
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1550
Imperial election (Holy Roman Empire)
Churches in the Diocese of Limburg
Imperial cathedrals
Former collegiate churches in Germany