The Mainzer Dom is one of the three great Imperial Cathedrals of the Rhine — alongside those of Speyer and Worms — and the most imposing building in the city. Archbishop Willigis began the cathedral in 975 CE; what stands today is the result of a millennium of construction, rebuilding, expansion, and repair, with Romanesque towers, Gothic chapels, and Baroque side altars all coexisting in the same vast space.
The interior is exceptional. The nave is lined with the elaborate tombs of medieval archbishops, some with full-length carved effigies. The choir screen is an important piece of Gothic sculpture. The cathedral treasury holds relics and liturgical objects spanning a thousand years. Despite the crowds in summer, the scale and weight of the building — it stands at the heart of the old town and can be seen from across the Rhine — still communicate something of its medieval authority.