Cruising on the Rhine: Churches

Aline writes: The highlight of our Germany trip was, for me, the churches. Since we’ve been in England and have seen so many churches, I find myself drawn to the Norman ones, such as the Templar church in London. There is something about the wonderful roundness of the arches and the architecture. What I didn’t know is that there are lots of Romanesque churches in Germany, as well as many other lovely churches from other eras. I hope you enjoy the photos below

The Frankfurt Dom has some beautiful medieval memorials





Also a wonderful medieval sculpture of the last supper.



The cathedral in Mainz was a huge structure with a nice cloister.









The most interesting feature was underneath – in the last 50 years they discovered an underground chamber that is a homage to Christ’s resting place in Jerusalem. You can just catch a glimpse of this here.



And for something completely different, this baroque interiour of another Mainz church was really pretty



Our final city, Cologne, turned into a marathon church-visiting day for us. After a walking tour of the City in the morning we visited the Cologne Cathedral. It may be the most remarkable and awe-inspiring church I have ever visited. Pictures cannot do justice to the scale of it – it seems impossible that human hands built it. But here are a few anyway ☺







We spent the rest of our day in Cologne walking around the city visiting various churches. Only the cathedral was left standing after WWII; the rest of the churches we visited were rebuilt, some almost completely. One of our favorites was St Pantaleon, a former Benedictine Monastery. It has an amazing late-Gothic choir screen.





But my personal favorite was St. Gereon.

Considered by some to be the most unusual church in Germany. It has a small oval section that was built in the 4th century on the graves of martyrs, that was then enclosed with a four-story structure in the 13th century, as well as a long traditional nave.