About this place
Rising in warm red sandstone beside the market square, Mainz Cathedral, officially the Hohe Dom zu Mainz and dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, is one of the great Romanesque cathedrals of Germany, ranked alongside its sister churches in Speyer and Worms. Archbishop Willigis laid its foundation in 975, envisioning a church to rival Saint Peter's in Rome and to mirror the power he wielded as chancellor of the German Empire. What you see today is a thousand years of building written in stone, from thick early Romanesque walls to a Baroque tower crown and Gothic flourishes. Six towers pierce the sky, the tallest reaching some 83 meters, and inside, the shadowy nave shelters the tombs of the prince archbishops who once helped elect the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.
Key facts
- 975 year — Archbishop Willigis laid the foundation, modeling the church on Saint Peter's in Rome
- 7 coronations — German kings were crowned within these walls, beginning with Henry the Second in 1002
- 83 meters — The height of the tallest tower above the red sandstone body of the cathedral
📍 Liebfrauenstraße 4, 55116, Mainz