15 августа 1248 года заложили Кельнский собор

By the middle of the 13th century, it was time for the rich and glorious city of Cologne to build a cathedral. There were plenty of cathedrals in cities all over France while Germany had trouble finding a decent place to bury the remains of the Three Kings. And the authorities decided to build one!

On August 15, 1248, the archbishop of Cologne Konrad von Hochstaden officially laid the foundation stone of the cathedral. The construction pace in the Middle Ages did not promise a prompt completion but no one could have imagined that the construction last for six and a half centuries, and in fact it would never end. At first it was fast — the cathedral choir was consecrated in less than a hundred years after construction had begun. But then it was stalled with wars, epidemics all around and Gothic going out... Everything was gradually falling apart, so that the unfinished parts would require repairs. In the 19th century, Germany faced the flowering of the Romanticism and the Gothic began to be praised again. The main romanticist Goethe studied the tale of the Tower of Babel on the Rhine and intervened. The authorities decided to complete the construction. In 1880, they even held an official ceremony in honor of its completion. But even after celebrations, the work continued because some glazing and some repairs had to be done. But the angels did the work, the inhabitants of Cologne object to all the accusations of never-ending construction and departure from the canons. Angles, no less, anyone will say if they ever looked at the cathedral open-mouthed.