Ways to discover the collection

Cologne Cathedral and the age of the Gothic cathedrals

When construction of the Gothic cathedral began in 1248, which gradually replaced the preceding building following the example set by French cathedrals, a new style emphatically came into its own in Cologne, which had heretofore been characterised by its Romanesque churches. The cathedral was completed according to medieval plans as late as 1842-1880, but its eastern choir and southern façade tower still date back to the Gothic period of the 13th and 14th centuries. The walls of the cathedral are made almost exclusively out of glass windows, which now experienced a heyday as settings for luminous pictures. The windows were set in a geometrically artistic framework of stone, and the columns and window framework were upheld by outwardly projecting supports known as buttresses. Gothic ivory carvings and works of the goldsmith’s art reflected these shapes in the form of micro-architecture. The church building was already considered a symbol of Heavenly Jerusalem, the paradise city described in the Apocalypse of St. John. The architectural forms, jutting vertically upwards, correspond to the emphasis on the axes of the body and the spatial effect of figures in Gothic sculpture. The Museum Schnütgen’s collection includes a large number of masterpieces of Gothic art as well as furnishings that were removed from the cathedral during the Baroque period. Among these are figures from the High Altar that was consecrated in 1322 and fragments of the sacrament tabernacle.