»NEW« TRAVELLING RR - Group 86 * Churches

I didn't even remember that i've joined this group. The envelope had cards from Brazil and Germany, i've just picked german cards.

"Berlin Cathedral is situated on the Spreeisland and is a protestant cathedral built on the model of St.Peters Dome in Rome. The today's church bulding with the massive dome was built from 1894 - 1905. He was erected by Julius Raschdorff on a request of Emperor Wilhelm II. to be the main church of Prussian Protestantism.

The cathedral had been built in the style of the italian High -Rennaissance at the beginning of Baroque and it had been the biggest protestant main building in Germany. The monumental dome was a symbol for the young, united Germany. During the 2nd World War the building was devastately damaged and since 1975 the cathedral is in the state of reconstruction." - in: http://www.ferienwohnung-zimmer-berlin.de/Tourismus_Berlin/berliner_dom_en.htm

"Ellwangen Abbey was the earliest Benedictine monastery established in what is now Baden-Württemberg, in Ellwangen about 60 miles / 100 km north-east of Stuttgart.

It was founded by Hariolfus, Bishop of Langres, in about 764, although there is some evidence that it may have been as early as 732.

The Benedictine occupation of the abbey came to an end in the first half of the fifteenth century. In 1460 it was changed into a college of secular canons under the rule of a provost.

Nothing is known of Ellwangen's property during the period of its Benedictine history, but in the 18th century, after it had passed into the hands of the secular canons.

Most of the ecclesiastical buildings still exist, though they are no longer used for religious purposes. In the secularisation of 1802 the abbey was dissolved and its assets taken over by the Duchy of Württemberg." - in: wikipedia

"The cathedral built under the first Bishop Erkanbert in 803 was a simple ‘Saalkirche’ (hall church) without any towers constructed on the cathedral hill. Later the minimal edifice was replaced by a 3-aisle long-house with an eastern transept, a choir and most likely an exterior crypt. The final shape of the cathedral was achieved with the added western transept completed around 1350. The cathedral stood mostly unchanged for over 600 years until it was almost totally destroyed during the bombing of Minden on March 28, 1945!
Among the most impressive features of the Minden Cathedral are its tracery windows. The
intricate stonemasonry of the 6 windows in the nave is one of the high points of European sacral architecture.
The destruction of a church is always an attack of hope. It was thus the order of the day to proceed quickly with reconstruction and the work came to its first closure with the re-consecration in 1957. Although several style-adjusting corrections were carried out, the present-day cathedral was initially conceived as a replica of the 1270/90 Gothic Hall Church.
Because of lack of funds the cathedral is now missing one crossing tower that had been part of the appearance of the cathedral and the city from 1270 until 1945.
In the last few years the wish for the missing crossing tower has become louder favouring a Gothic tower like the one that stood in the olden days." - in: http://di-ve.com/Default.aspx?ID=71&Action=1&NewsId=63325&currentPage=9