German Cathedrals, Fortresses, and Castles

Europe, of course, is know for its many magnificent cathedrals.  The Cologne Cathedral is among the biggest, tallest, and most grand of them.  During World War II over ninety percent of the buildings in Cologne were bombed, but fortunately the cathedral was left largely unharmed.

We visited the cathedral during the day, and Scott went on a tour of the cathedral at night.  

The first photo is of the cathedral during the day and the interior photo is one that Scott took from above.









We were interested to learn that Speyer, Germany is more the home of the Protestant Reformation than Wittenberg, which is where Luther posted his 95 theses on the Roman Catholic cathedral door.  It was in Speyer in 1529 that twenty Lutheran princes and representatives of free cities banded together to refuse to bend to the mandate that Catholicism was the only legitimate way to worship.  This action is what gave the new movement its protestant name.

We visited both the cathedral and the protestant church there. This is the protestant church in Speyer.  Below is a detail from the church's frescos. 



We also visited the old Jewish quarter in Speyer, once home to a thriving community until they were blamed for the Black Plague in the fourteenth century and banished from Germany.  Some returned centuries later but were again removed by the Nazi regime.  This is what remains of the synagogue that was built in 1104.






At Koblenz we visited the amazing fortification of Ehrenbreitstein, built initially by the Romans in the fifth century.  The fortification that was built during the sixteenth century was destroyed by Napoleon.  In the nineteenth century, the Prussians rebuilt an amazingly complex fortress that would defeat the French if they ever tried to attack again.  They didn't.  The fortress sits above the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers.




On the Middle Rhine River between the German cities of Koblenz and Rudesheim there are more than twenty castles built in the Middle Ages to allow feudal lords to control trade along the river.  Some now are museums, some have been converted to hotels, and some are privately owned.  

In 1970, my traveling companion Cecelia and I spent a night in one that was then serving as a youth hostel.  My memory is that it was a very long, arduous climb up to the castle entrance, made more difficult by the full backpacks we were carrying.  Our rooms were dark and drafty, but we were charmed by the experience of spending the night in one of the castles.  I asked our ship’s guide about this.  He confirmed that one of the Koblenz castles had once been a youth hostel but is now a museum.  Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of that particular one, but here are photos of some of the others we viewed as we sailed up the Rhine.




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