Places
Cologne Cathedral’s twin openwork spires rising above its Gothic east end.
Seen from the east. Photo: Thomas Wolf , www.foto-tw.de, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons.

Place · Pilgrimage site · Cathedral

Cologne Cathedral

Gothic cathedral begun in 1248 to house the relics venerated as those of the Three Kings (the Magi), and completed only in 1880.

Location
Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Building
Cathedral (archdiocesan see)
Tradition
Roman Catholic
Religious use
In use as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Cologne.
Official website
Kölner Dom

Map Building location: Apple Maps · Google Maps — the building, not a confirmed visitor entrance.

Since the twelfth century Cologne has drawn pilgrims to the relics venerated as those of the Magi, kept in a gilded shrine behind the high altar. The cathedral was built on a scale meant to house them.

In the Atlas

Each paragraph says whether it is documented history, a tradition handed down, or disputed.

  • Documented

    On 23 July 1164 Archbishop Rainald of Dassel, chancellor to the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, brought relics from Milan to Cologne; the emperor had taken them in his conquest of Milan.

  • Tradition

    The relics are venerated as those of the Magi of Matthew 2. Earlier legend says they were found by the empress Helena and passed through Constantinople to Milan; the Gospel gives neither their names nor their number.

  • Documented

    The gilded Shrine of the Three Kings was made between about 1190 and 1225, by Nicholas of Verdun among others. The cathedral was begun in 1248, halted around 1560, and completed to its medieval plan in 1880. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

Editorial draft. Some sources below were read (Wikipedia and Wikidata) and the text was corrected against them; others were located but could not be read, so the profile stays a draft.

  • Reference work · Located, not read

    Cologne Cathedral — Encyclopaedia Britannica

    Address confirmed on 28 Oct 2026 (it is indexed for this subject); the page itself could not be opened in this session, so no statement here has been checked against it.

  • Official source · Located, not read

    Cologne Cathedral — UNESCO World Heritage Centre

    Address confirmed on 28 Oct 2026 (it is indexed for this subject); the page itself could not be opened in this session, so no statement here has been checked against it.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    Cologne Cathedral — Wikipedia (English)

    Read on 28 Oct 2026 at revision 1381444424, fetched by the research workflow (research/fetched/places/cologne-cathedral/wikipedia.txt). A general reference work, not a scholarly source; the statements here were checked against it.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    Wikidata item Q4176 (Cologne Cathedral) — Wikidata

    Read on 28 Oct 2026: instance of, religion, diocese, coordinates and official website.