Trier Cathedral (Dom St. Peter)

At its core, Trier Cathedral goes back to the Constantinian church complex of the 4th century. It combines a Romanesque twin-tower facade, a Gothic reliquary ambulatory, and a Baroque chapel housing the Holy Robe. The relic itself is shown only during rare pilgrimages, the most recent of which drew more than half a million pilgrims in 2012.

The Dom (cathedral) grew over many centuries into a stone history book. On the Constantinian core from the 4th century, a Carolingian renewal phase was added in the 8th and 9th centuries, giving the building its massive Romanesque character. Gothic extensions followed in the late Middle Ages, while the Renaissance and Baroque eras mainly shaped the interior. Under one roof, you find Romanesque austerity, Gothic pointed arches and Baroque splendor side by side, complemented by one of the oldest crypts in Germany, which served both as a burial site and a reliquary.

Its most famous relic is the Holy Robe, venerated as the tunic of Jesus Christ and shown publicly only during rare pilgrimages. These Holy Robe pilgrimages are among the largest religious events in Germany: in 1995 more than 700,000 pilgrims came to Trier, around 500,000 in 2012, and roughly 270,000 in 2016. In other years the Holy Robe stays locked away, so visitors can instead explore the rich cathedral treasury with its medieval altars, sculptures and liturgical objects.