Cologne Cathedral - panoramic view from the Vierungsturm
A superlative and unique 360° panoramic view of the cathedral and its city can be enjoyed from the 70 metre high viewing platform on the Vierungsturm, whose portals still include original zinc castings dating from the 19th century. Towards the West, you are looking at the two spires of the cathedral, to the right of which stands the pink-coloured former Jesuit church of St. Mariae Himmelfahrt and Cologne's main rail station behind which, in the distance, the Romanesque church of St. Kunibert stands proudly. Your gaze then directs you to the river Rhine and across the nave of the cathedral which extends to the Hohenzollernbrücke bridge, the Ludwig museum and the Old Town with the Romanesque church of Gross St. Martin, continuing round to the green-clad spire on the town hall, the Rathausturm. To the right, beside the south transverse wing of the cathedral, you find the Domhotel (Cathedral Hotel) with the Minoritenkirche in the background, finally returning to the view of the two cathedral spires.Another striking feature of the view from the Vierungsturm is provided by the exceptionally steeply angled roofs of the nave, longitudinal section and transverse wings of Cologne Cathedral.
The roof surface area of the cathedral extends over 12 000 m2. All roofs are covered with large lead tiles with a combined weight of roughly 600 tons.
There is a long tradition of using lead as a roofing material on Cologne Cathedral. The nave, the oldest section of the structure, completed in 1300, had a 15 metre high lead roof the same size as the current one and this was also built on the same steep angle.
This unusually steep rake on the roof sections (67.5°) meant that the golden ornamentation applied during the Middle Ages was displayed more prominently and that the golden lettering, 1.50 metres in height, could be read more easily. This text made reference to the most significant relics housed in Cologne Cathedral, being the skeletal remains of the Three Kings.
Following extensive damage during World War II, all roof areas were completely renovated with work commencing in 1985 and reaching completion in 1996 with the prominent Hochschiff roofs on the North aspect of the building. Some of the old lead roofing was recycled to create new dials for the souvenirs known as cathedral clocks, sales of which have been a great commercial success and have contributed greatly towards building funds.
As part of the process of recladding the Hochschiff roofs, the 1.35 metre high roof crowning was also replaced, again using zinc casting. The original roof crowning, fabricated in 1861 in the Cologne zinc foundry had become so full of holes and cracks following the ravages of war and weather that water ingress had become a serious and frequent problem for the roof structure.
To remedy this, individual sections of the roof crowning were recast in bronze at Milan's Battaglia studios and were then fitted to the Hochschiff roofs between 1984 and 1990. The gold-plated lilies which restored the roof crowning's original medieval appearance were bolted into place subsequently.
For the first time since 1882, the 8.39 metre Firstkreuz cross created from 11 bronze castings in the late 13th century now gleams once again with a golden sheen. Wafer-thin gold leaf was applied directly in situ in October and November 1991 from a 16 metre scaffolding structure erected over the end of the nave.
