The story of Strasbourg Cathedral
Building began in 1015 on the site of earlier churches, and the cathedral grew from Romanesque to Gothic over four centuries. When its single north spire was completed in 1439, at 142 metres, it made the cathedral the tallest building in the world until 1874. It is built from pink sandstone quarried in the Vosges mountains.
Inside, the astronomical clock is a Renaissance case with a 19th-century mechanism by Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué. Every day at 12:30 its figures move: the apostles pass before Christ and a rooster crows. Victor Hugo called the cathedral "a gigantic and delicate marvel".
