Speyer Cathedral - History and Architecture - Middle Ages

Middle Ages

In 1024, Conrad II commissioned the construction of the Christian Western world's largest church which was also supposed to be his last resting place. Construction began 1030 on the site of a former basilica which stood on an elevated plateau right by the Rhine but safe from high water. Along with Santiago de Compostela (begun 1075), Cluny Abbey (Cluny III, begun 1085), and Durham Cathedral (begun 1093), it was the most ambitious project of the time. The red sandstone for the building came from the mountains of the Palatine Forest and is thought to have been shipped down the channelled Speyerbach, a stream running from the mountains into the Rhine at Speyer. Neither Conrad II, nor his son Henry III, were to see the cathedral completed. Conrad II died in 1039 and was buried in the cathedral while it was still under construction; Henry III was laid next to him in 1056. The graves were placed in the central aisle in front of the altar.

Nearly completed, the cathedral was consecrated in 1061. This phase of construction, called Speyer I, consists of a Westwerk, a nave with two aisles and an adjoining transept. The choir was flanked by two towers. The original apse was round inside but rectangular on the outside. The nave was covered with a flat wooden ceiling but the aisles were vaulted, making the cathedral the second largest vaulted building north of the Alps (after Aachen Cathedral). It is considered to be the most stunning outcome of early Salian architecture and the "culmination of a design which was extremely influential in the subsequent development of Romanesque architecture during the 11th and 12th centuries".

Around 1090, Conrad's grandson, Emperor Henry IV, conducted an ambitious reconstruction in order to enlarge the cathedral. He had the eastern sections demolished and the foundations enforced to a depth of up to eight metres. Only the lower floors and the crypt of Speyer I remained intact. The nave was elevated by five metres and the flat wooden ceiling replaced with a groin vault of square bays, one of the outstanding achievements of Romanesque architecture. Each vault extends over two bays of the elevation. Every second pier was enlarged by adding a broad pilaster or dosseret, which formed a system of interior buttressing. Engaged shafts had appeared around 1030 in buildings along the Loire (St. Benoit-sur-Loire, Auxerre, Loches) from where the technique spread to Normandy and the Rhineland.

The only other contemporary example of such a bay system is in the church of San Vincente, Cardona, Spain. The "double-bay system" of Speyer functioning as a support for the stone vaults was copied in many monuments along the Rhine. The addition of groin vaults made the incorporation of clerestory windows possible without weakening the structure. "The result is an interior of monumental power, albeit stark and prismatic when compared with contemporary French buildings, but one which conveys an impression of Roman gravitas, an impression singularly appropriate for a ruler with the political pretensions of Henry IV."

In the course of these modifications the cathedral was equipped with an external dwarf gallery, an arcaded gallery recessed into the thickness of the walls, and which is a natural development of the blind arcade. Such blind arcades were used extensively as decorations, lining internal and external walls of many Romanesque churches. At the east end of Speyer Cathedral the dwarf gallery and the blind arcades were composed into "one of the most memorable pieces of Romanesque design". The dwarf gallery encircles the top of the apse, underlining its rounded form, and runs all around the structure below the roofline. This feature soon became a fundamental element in Romanesque churches; it was adopted at Worms and Mainz cathedrals and on the facades of many churches in Italy. "The cathedral re-emerged in a more sculptural style typical of the prime of the Romanesque period." "The transept, the square of the choir, the apse, the central tower and the flanking towers were combined in a manner and size surpassing anything done before. All surfaces and edges rise without stages. The major elements within the combination remain independent.... Speyer became a model for many other church buildings but was unsurpassed in its magnificence."

The expanded cathedral, Speyer II, was completed in 1106, the year of Henry's IV death. With a length of 444 Roman feet (134 metres) and a width of 111 Roman feet (43 metres) it was one of the largest buildings of its time. The building became a political issue: the enlargement of the cathedral in the small village of Speyer with only around 500 inhabitants was a blunt provocation for the papacy. The emperor not only laid claim to secular but also to ecclesiastical power and with the magnificence and splendour of this cathedral he underlined this bold demand. The purpose of the building, already a strong motive for Conrad, was the emperor's "claim to a representative imperial Roman architecture" in light of the continuing struggle with Pope Gregory VII. Thus, the Speyer Cathedral is also seen as a symbol of the Investiture Controversy. It was only five years after his death that Henry IV's excommunication was revoked and his body was put to rest in his cathedral in 1111. In the following centuries the cathedral remained relatively unchanged. In a drawing of 1610 a Gothic chapel has been added to the northern aisle, and in a drawing of around 1650 there is another Gothic window in the northern side of the Westwerk. In a drawing of 1750 depicting the cathedral with the destroyed middle section the latter window is absent. File:

The last ruler was put to rest in the cathedral in 1308, completing a list of eight emperors and kings and a number of their wives:

• Conrad II (died 1039) and his wife Gisela († 1043)
• Henry III (died 1056), son of Conrad II.
• Henry IV (died 1106), son of Henry III, and his wife Bertha (died 1087)
• Henry V (died 1125), son of Henry IV.
• Beatrice I (died 1184), second wife of Frederick Barbarossa and their daughter Agnes
• King Philipp of Swabia († 1208), son of Frederick Barbarossa
• King Rudolph of Habsburg (died 1291)
• King Adolph of Nassau (died 1298)
• King Albert I of Germany (died 1308), son of Rudolph of Habsburg

(Note: all eight of these rulers were Kings of Germany. However, in order to receive the title of Holy Roman Emperor, they had be crowned by the Pope. When relations between the Pope and German King were good, they were crowned "Imperator Romanum" or Holy Roman Emperor. When relations were strained, the Popes refused to crown the King as Emperor. So essentially these were all eight Holy Roman Emperors, but four of them were "uncrowned".)

In addition to these rulers the cathedral is the resting place of several of the ruler's wives and many of Speyer's bishops.