Cologne Cathedral

Cologne Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral whose 157-metre twin-spired facade was begun in 1248 and not completed until 1880 — after 632 years of construction interrupted by a centuries-long building halt in the 16th century. Its most celebrated treasure is the Shrine of the Three Kings, a gilded 13th-century reliquary that made the cathedral the most visited pilgrimage destination north of the Alps throughout the Middle Ages. During World War II the Dom was struck fourteen times yet survived largely intact, widely believed to have been deliberately spared by Allied bomber crews as a navigational landmark — one of the most remarkable survival stories in German war architecture. Today 533 steps lead to the south tower for sweeping views over Cologne and the Rhine, while the Gothic tracery windows cast shifting coloured light across the interior, particularly arresting in the evening hours.

157 m twin-spired cathedral with the world's largest west façade — UNESCO heritage since 1996.