Cologne Cathedral vs St. Stephans Cathedral

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<p>Cologne Cathedral (German: Kölner Dom, Formally Hohe Domkirche Sankt Petrus, English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. </p>It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the government of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a monument of architecture and German Catholicism and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996. It is Germany's most visited landmark, bringing an average of 20,000 people every day. In 157 m (515 ft), the cathedral is now the tallest twin-spired church on earth, the 2nd largest church in Europe after Ulm Minster, and the third largest church in the world. It contains the second-tallest spires and is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. The cathedral is given the of any church in the world by the towers for both spires that are huge.

The choir has the largest height to width ratio, 3.6:1, of any medieval church.Construction of Cologne Cathedral started in 1248 but was stopped in 1473, unfinished. Work did not restart until the 1840s, and the edifice was completed to its original plan in 1880. Cologne's medieval builders had planned a grand structure to house the reliquary of the 3 Kings and fit its function as a place of worship for the Holy Roman Emperor. Despite having been left incomplete during the medieval period, Cologne Cathedral eventually became unified as"a masterpiece of exceptional intrinsic value" and"a powerful testimony to the strength and persistence of Christian belief in medieval and modern Europe".

Source: Wikipedia

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St. Stephen's Cathedral (more commonly known by its German Name: Stephansdom) is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, OP.

The current Romanesque and Gothic sort of the cathedral, seen now in the Stephansplatz, was mostly initiated by Duke Rudolf IV (1339--1365) and stands on the ruins of two earlier churches, the first a parish church consecrated in 1147. The main religious building in Vienna, St. Stephen's Cathedral has borne witness to a lot of important events in Habsburg and Austrian history and has, with its multi-coloured tile roof, become among the city's most recognizable symbols.

Source: Wikipedia