Ulmer Münster--tallest church in the world

Through our years in Germany, we have driven past the city of Ulm dozens of times (mostly on our way to Legoland), but last week is the first time I actually stopped for a visit to the city, or more to the point, to their famous cathedral--the Ulm Minitster.

The "Cathedral" (it's not really a cathedral as it was never the seat of a Catholic bishop and it has been a Lutheran church since 1530) was built primarily in the 1400s, though construction began in 1377 and it was not fully completed until 1890.

It is a huge, Gothic, building which totally dominates the square of mostly modern buildings (it is one of very few medieval buildings in the city to survive bombing during World War II).

There are a couple of people in this one to give you a sense of scale

Here is some detail from the exterior:

It was much prettier and less dark inside than I was expecting.  So many of the older churches are very dim and also full of brutal imagery.  This one is really quite pretty and less dark in tone as well as color.  Perhaps the longer build time allowed more modern ideas to seep in?  In any event, it was nice and I enjoyed looking around:

I should note that you can climb to the top for a charge of 5€   I am fairly uncomfortable with heights and it was a cloudy and foggy day, so I knew the view would not be all that great and chose not to climb.  We were with friends who did go up.  They said it was very pretty but also that it feel extremely open as you climb and even they, who are not normally nervous about heights, were both nervous with the climb, so I think it is good I didn't go. 

Climbing or not, if you are near Ulm it is worth stopping in for an hour or two to see this magnificent old building; I'm glad I finally got a chance to do so.

--Hadley