Strasbourg Cathedral

Surrounded by the Christmas market crowd, the cathedral, Notre Dame de Strasbourg, still dominates the place at the center of town.  

It was once the tallest building in the world, with its spire reaching 142 meters (466 feet).   Built of a pinky.red sandstone called gré,  the centuries have turned it to a sort of greyish-pink.   At sunset, it glows pink and gold.  If you’re driving towards Strasbourg, you can see it far across the plain of Alsace.  In the city, it towers over everything else.  Here it is from the Place du Corbeau, on the other side of the river.

 

 We came upon a relief scupture of the city in Place d’Austerlitz, which gives you some idea of the scale of the cathedral, compared to the surrounding city.

 

 

We slipped inside one afternoon, away from the clamor of the markets outside.   The cathedral’s most famous for a late addition, the astronomical clock, which ‘performs’ at midday – the cock crows, the apostles parade by and so on.   To see the clock go through its paces, you have to pay admission.   At other times of the day, the church is open to all.

And here’s the rose window, different than other gothic cathedrals in that the circle is composed not of saints, but of sheaves of wheat, which represented the commercial strength of the city.

Another well-known detail is the little dog carved at shoulder height on the elaborately decorated podium, supposedly the dog of a famous churchman who came to preach at Strasbourg.  Rubbing his head is supposed to bring good luck and we waited our turn behind a line of German tourists doing just that.