Dom und Domschatz

Essen Cathedral and St. John the Baptist’s church in front of it were the centre of the medieval town. The cathedral took from 852 A.D. until about 1330 to build. With its majestic three steeples, it is reminiscent of the Pfalzkapelle in Aachen – especially because of the monarch gallery and the double colonnade inside. This is an indication of the close links to the Ottonian imperial family. After being destroyed during World War II, the church was rebuilt in the 1950s. The cathedral is home to the more than 1,000-year-old Golden Madonna statue, the oldest free-standing Madonna sculpture in the western world. In the cathedral treasure chamber, visitors can admire church treasures of great value: the golden sword and the child’s crown of Otto III from his coronation in 983 A.D. The seven-branched candelabrum, which is a copy of the candelabrum in the temple of Jerusalem, is also something not to be missed.