Nestled in the historic heart of Mainz is St. Martin’s Cathedral, a 1000-year-old cathedral that serves as the episcopal see of the Bishop of Mainz. Its soaring towers dominate the half-timbered houses of the pedestrianized Old Town and it represents the high point of Romanesque cathedral architecture in Germany.
The Cathedral of Mainz was first established in 975AD but continually restored and rebuilt over successive centuries. Much of its present form dates to the 13th and 14th centuries, with the cathedral surviving largely unscathed during the Allied bombing of Mainz during World War II. It was here that the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa took up the Cross in the Third Crusade, which was called by Pope Gregory VIII in 1188 to conquer the Holy Land from Muslim leader, Saladin... 
