The world's tallest cathedral is the Ulmer Munster Lutheran Church of the Evangelical Land Church of Württemberg in the small German city of Ulm. This city - the birthplace of Albert Einstein - is located on the banks of the Danube and is located in the south of the country, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Ulm's main cathedral can also be considered a record holder in terms of construction duration - it stretched for more than half a millennium.
Formally, the temple in Ulm cannot be called a cathedral today, since the bishop's residence is now in the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart. Nevertheless, it is the tallest temple in the world, the spire of which rises above the city to a height of more than 161 meters.
The laying of the future construction took place in 1377, but since the cathedral was to be built with money collected by the townspeople, problems with financing immediately arose and the real construction began only after a decade and a half. This was only the first delay; later on, construction was suspended several times for both financial and technical reasons. For the first time the church received parishioners in 1405. After another completion in 1530-1543, the height of the building reached the 100-meter mark, and the Ulm Cathedral acquired its final form in the 19th century - the last stage of construction was completed in 1890.
At the end of World War II, the city was repeatedly bombed by the British Air Force, with the result that 81% of its buildings were destroyed. However, the Ulm Cathedral was almost not damaged, since the Allied aviation used such a tall building, which did not pose a military threat, as a navigational landmark. After the war, a small number of old city buildings were restored, so now the cathedral is one of the few ancient monuments in the city and its main tourist attraction.
Among other cathedrals in the world, the newest temple of Notre Dame de la Paix in the African state of Côte d'Ivoire stands out for its height - this building is only 14 years old, and the height from the ground to the tip of the cross on its dome is 158 meters. The famous Cologne Cathedral is only half a meter behind it, but at this temple the spiers of two towers at once have ascended to such a height. In Germany, in general, there are many majestic temples that stretch as high as possible into the sky - of the fifteen tallest cathedrals, 9 were built in this country.
