Imperial Cathedral

Frankfurt's Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus is the city's largest sacred building, a late-Gothic sandstone structure whose history stretches back to an earlier church on the site in 852. Between 1562 and 1792, ten Holy Roman Emperors were crowned here — a distinction no other building in Germany can claim, even though the church was technically never a cathedral but a collegiate foundation. The prominent west tower, struck by lightning in 1867, was rebuilt and completed in a neo-Gothic style to reach 95 meters, becoming the defining feature of the Frankfurt skyline before the banking towers arrived. The adjacent Dommuseum holds medieval vestments and liturgical treasures directly connected to the imperial coronation ceremonies. Visitors who climb the 328 steps to the tower top are rewarded with a striking view of the reconstructed old town set against Frankfurt's glass-and-steel financial district.

High-Gothic parish church, election venue from 1356 and coronation church from 1562. Climbable 95 m tower.