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Don’t believe a word of it.

BITS of the cathedral are 1000 years old – this tower and the matching one on the other side, for instance – but given that it

• Burned down on the day of its inauguration in…..yes, 1009….., which meant that there was nowhere appropriate to bury Bishop Willigis when he fell off the perch 2 years later. (He ended up at the top of the Gaustrasse in St Stephan, but folk lost track of his bones over the centuries, so it’s pretty much a guessing game as to where he is these days. Or was that St Martin? Whatever…)
• Burned down again in 1081
• Was struck by lightning and damaged in 1767
• Was attacked by the French in 1793, who used it as an army camp and burned the wooden interior for fuel
• Had incredibly ugly bits added and removed on various occasions
• Got thumped by the Allies in the 1942 air raids

you can only REALLY say that – on average – it’s FAIRLY old.

But who wants to quibble over a century or two…?

14 Feb This entry was published on 14 February, 2009 at 12:00. It’s filed under Culture, Mainz and tagged Architecture, History. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.