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St. Maria ad Gradus

1817 disestablishmentsBurial sites of the EzzonidsRoman Catholic churches in CologneRomanesque architecture in Germany
Sankt Maria ad Gradus
Sankt Maria ad Gradus

St. Maria ad Gradus ("Our Lady of the Steps", also colloquially called Mariengraden in German language) is the name of a former church located East of the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany, situated between the cathedral and the Rhine. Founded by Herman II, Archbishop of Cologne, the church was the burial site of blessed Richeza of Lotharingia (died March 1063), a former Queen of Poland and a grandchild of Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Theophanu. The Romanesque building, 55m long and 42m wide, was probably completed by Archbishop Anno II in 1075, when the relics of St. Agilulfus of Cologne (died 750) were transferred there. Already in 1080 it burned down, but was rebuilt in 1085 and later expanded.The remains of Richeza and others were later translated to the cathedral, which had been begun in 1248. Konrad von Hochstaden was canon of St. Maria ad Gradus and Archbishop of Cologne at this time, from 1238 to 1261. Following the French occupation of the Rhineland in 1794, monasteries and religious foundations were dissolved, and churches abandoned. As St. Maria ad Gradus was too close to other churches (the Cathedral, Great St. Martin's, and St. Andreas), it was partially demolished in 1817; and most of what remained was removed in 1827 when the area was cleared to allow the Cathedral's restoration and completion. Only a few fragments remain.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article St. Maria ad Gradus (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

St. Maria ad Gradus
Bischofsgartenstraße, Cologne Altstadt-Nord (Innenstadt)

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N 50.941111111111 ° E 6.96 °
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Bischofsgartenstraße 1
50667 Cologne, Altstadt-Nord (Innenstadt)
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
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Sankt Maria ad Gradus
Sankt Maria ad Gradus
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Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral

Cologne Cathedral (German: Kölner Dom, officially Hohe Domkirche Sankt Petrus, English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996. It is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day. At 157 m (515 ft), the cathedral is currently the tallest twin-spired church in the world, the second tallest church in Europe after Ulm Minster, and the third tallest church in the world. It is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spires. The towers for its two huge spires give the cathedral the largest façade of any church in the world. The choir has the largest height-to-width ratio, 3.6:1, of any medieval church.Construction of Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 but was halted in the years around 1560, unfinished. Work did not restart until the 1840s, and the edifice was completed to its original Medieval plan in 1880.Cologne's medieval builders had planned a grand structure to house the reliquary of the Three Kings and fit its role 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". Only the telecommunications tower is higher than the Cathedral.