Mainz Cathedral aka: Mainzer Dom, St. Martin Cathedral

Mainz Cathedral, also formally known in English as St. Martin Cathedral or Mainzer Dom as it is called in German, is located near the historical center of Mainz, Germany.

Mainz Cathedral is the site of the episcopal see of the Bishop of Mainz.

The cathedral looms over the largely pedestrianized center market square. It’s red-sandstone, six-towered body shelters the half-timbered houses of the old city and commands a prominent place in the skyline of Mainz.

The cathedral’s spacious interior houses the tombs and funerary monuments of former powerful prince-archbishops of the diocese. There are many statues on the cathedral grounds, like those of St. Boniface and the Madonna.

Mainz Cathedral, along with the cathedrals of Worms and Speyer, represents the highpoint of Romanesque cathedral architecture in the Rhine Region of Germany. These particular cathedrals are often called Kaiser-Domes, a reference to their consecration during the height of the Holy Roman Empire (the German word Kaiser, a variant of Caesar, means emperor, the word Dome in this instance, is a derivative for the german word Dom, meaning a cathedral or very large church).

Though predominantly Romanesque, later exterior additions to the cathedral, coupled with the influence of different artisans over the centuries on the cathedral’s interior, have resulted in the appearance of various styles seen today.

Historical snippets
The construction of the medieval cathedral dates back to Archbishop Willigis (975-1010), who fostered the commerce of Mainz, an important medieval trade center.[...]
It was at Mainz Cathedral on March 27, 1188, that Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, known as Frederick Barbarossa, symbolically took up the Cross and enlisted the military of the Holy Roman Empire in the Third Crusade called by Pope Gregory VIII.[...]
In its prime the cathedral saw the coronation of German kings, who were subsequently crowned emperors by the Pope through the traditional political process of the Holy Roman Empire. The coronation of German kings was a rite afforded to the Archbishop of Mainz during city’s status as an archdiocese from 747 until 1802 when much of Germany was reorganized politically under Napoleonic rule, though most kings had been crowned in Aachen. The Bishop of Mainz held considerable secular power as a Prince-Elector within the Holy Roman Empire.[...]
Mainz Cathedral has fallen victim to war damage over its long history. Prussian troops attempting to dislodge French Revolutionary forces from Mainz destroyed the east portion of the cathedral as they besieged the city in 1793. The Allies bombing of Mainz during World War II destroyed 80% of the inner city; fortunately the cathedral emerged with relatively little damage. The reconstruction of the cloister and the Chapel of St. Godhard, that had been damaged was completed in 1960.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainz_Cathedral )