Ulm Minster – the tallest church in the world

The next stop in our trip to the Alps was Ulm. It’s a small town in Germany on the river Danube. We decided to visit it because of its cathedral – Ulm Minster. Why is this church worth visiting? There are few reasons:

1. It is currently the tallest christian building in the world. Its gothic tower is 161,53 meters high.

2. In 1890 – 1901 it was the tallest building in the world. It lost its leadership position for buildings of the new world in Philadelphia and New York. By the way we can see how technical progress goes – at the beginning of 20th century the tallest buildings reached 160 meters while at the beginning of 21st – we can look down from over 800 meters high Burj Khalifa (read more about Burj Khalifa here).

3. Tower and especially located almost at its top observation deck. Urban legend says that in good weather one can see the Alps from the deck. Unfortunately we werent given to check that – the deck was closed. We regret a lot because the weather was sunny and the view could have been interesting, maybe even we would have seen those Alps.

4. The construction of the minster took almost 500 years and since the first thing we noticed approaching the cathedral was scaffolding, we thought that the catedral is a kind of local Sagrada Familia – a church  permanently under construction (read more about Sagrada Familia here). But nothing like that – minster was finished in 1890 and scaffolding was used only for some restoration works.

5. Minster itself is impressive work of art. Visitors are attracted by exterior and interior design of this today Lutheran church. You have to particularily see 16th century Besseser chapel with original stained-glass windows.

The cathedral didn’t impress us that much but if you are somewhere near you will want to see it and the whole town for yourself. Maybe you will be more lucky than us and will get to the obsrevation deck and see the Alps. You should also know that this litte town ia a birthplace of Albert Einstein whose memorial can be seen on one of the old town streets, not far from Munsterplatz.