[6] Standing in the centre of the Place de la Cathédrale, at 142 metres (466 feet), Strasbourg Cathedral was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874 (227 years), when it was surpassed by St. Nikolai's Church, Hamburg.

Described by Victor Hugo as a "gigantic and delicate marvel",[7] and by Goethe as a "sublimely towering, wide-spreading tree of God",[2] the cathedral is visible far across the plains of Alsace and can be seen from as far off as the Vosges Mountains or the Black Forest on the other side of the Rhine.

In 1988, the Strasbourg Cathedral was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List along with the historic centre of the city (called the "Grande Île") because of its outstanding Gothic architecture.

[16] A Roman settlement called Argentoratum, twenty hectares in size, existed on the site since about 12 B.C., at a strategic point where bridges crossed the Rhine and two of its tributaries.

The church was repaired after each fire, and reconstructions and modifications made, but it retained its essentially Romanesque form, with thick walls, small windows and massive columns.

The architects of the rebuilding began to include Gothic elements, following the style that had appeared in northern France in the 12th century, while still preserving the existing Romanesque features.

The next major step toward Gothic took place with the raising of the vaults of the south transept, creating thinner walls and more space for high windows.

[29][30] The building of the second tower was often discussed, and was seriously proposed when Alsace became part of Germany after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, but was coldly received by the population of Strasbourg, who considered it would be a symbol of German occupation.

[32] Like the city of Strasbourg, the cathedral connects German and French cultural influences, while the eastern structures, e.g. the choir and south portal, still have very Romanesque features, with more emphasis placed on walls than on windows.

The work of Professor Robert O. Bork of the University of Iowa suggests that the design of the Strasbourg façade, while seeming almost random in its complexity, can be constructed using a series of rotated octagons.

The sculpture over the central tympanum and over the south portal of the transept was saved because it was covered with wooden planks with the revolutionary motto "Liberté-Égalité-Fraternité",[36] In April 1794, the Enragés started planning to tear the spire down, on the grounds that it hurt the principle of equality.

[38] Seven church bells were removed and melted down to made into cannon, and gold and other precious objects in the interior confiscated and taken away, and in November 1793 the cathedral was formally proclaimed a "Temple of Reason".

[44] On 1 March 1941, General Leclerc made the "Oath of Kufra" (serment de Koufra), stating he would "rest the weapons only when our beautiful colours fly again on Strasbourg's cathedral".

[47] The cathedral was hit by British and American bombs during air raids on the centre of Strasbourg on 11 August 1944, which also heavily damaged the Palais Rohan and the Sainte-Madeleine Church.

[53] The west front takes its distinctive appearance and sense of verticality from the dense network of lacelike pointed gables, pinnacles and tall, slender columns that cover it.

[55][56] It presents a virtual theater of late Gothic flamboyant architecture and decoration, including three interlocking arches over the doors, containing a statue of the Saint during his martyrdom.

The walls of the tower have tall lancet openings, which show the bells and bring light into the interior, and are decorated on the exterior with interlocking pointed gables.

[68] The spire above the tower is composed of eight stages of elaborate octagonal structure, linked together by interlaced arches and pinnacles, which contain a stairway to the lantern at the top.

[73] Rays of yellow glass radiate outwards like a sun, surrounded mosaic-like pieces of green and blue and by small oculi with red floral designs.

The pulpit itself, in the form of a very ornate corbeille or basket, is entirely covered with colonettes, gables, pinnacles, and niches filled with sculpture, including images of Christ on the cross, a crowned Virgin Mary, Apostles, the Crucifixion, and well as Kings and doctors of the Church.

Other moving figures include a trumpet player carrying a banner and a pretzel vendor being offered flour, water, and salt by the caryatides on the console.

The central art work of the North Transept is a large statue of Christ on the cross, over a sculptural landscape depicting the Mount of Olives, crowded with carved figures in dramatic poses.

[83] In the south transept, the lancet and oculus windows in the two large bays on the east, built in 1220–1227, are modelled after those in the lower choir of Chartres Cathedral.

The lower part of the massive base of the clock has statues of Apollo and the Goddess Diana presenting a circular calendar of the liturgical year, whose revolving face with a globe points to the dates of major religious festivals and events.

[85] The apse of the cathedral, the hemispherical vault behind the altar on the northeast end, features Romanesque and Gothic architecture overlaid with 19th-century Neo-Romanesque decoration, The paintings on the half-dome and walls were made by Édouard Steinlé in 1877–79, in the style of a Byzantine mosaic.

The two vertical windows in the chapel of Sainte Catherine measure almost 9 m high by visual artist Véronique Ellena and master glassmaker Pierre-Alain Parot.

[88] Perhaps most curious to an unfamiliar visitor is the toe bone of Saint Alphonse-Marie Eppinger encased in a wooden and red velvet box, which was placed in the chapel upon her beatification in 2016.

[89] In 1519 Strasbourg Cathedral commissioned Jerg von Speyer to create what was said to be the largest bell in Europe; 2.74 meters in diameter and weighing twenty tons.

Other objects and works from the cathedral, including the mechanism of the original astronomical clock, are found in the Musée des arts décoratifs de Strasbourg.

The known dimensions of the building are as follows:[91] Protestant and Revolutionary iconoclasm, the war periods of 1681, 1870 and 1940–1944, as well as changes in taste and liturgy, have taken a toll on some of Strasbourg Cathedral's most outstanding features such as the choir screen of 1252 and the successive high altars (ca.