Wetzlar Cathedral, Simultaneum cathedral in Wetzlar, Germany

Wetzlar Cathedral is a large church begun around 1230 and still unfinished: its western front lacks the northern belfry. The south tower carries a baroque roof that replaced a wooden pinnacle destroyed by fire in 1561. The building mixes Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque work, and parts of the 12th-century western portal remain visible.

Construction started in 1230 on the site of an earlier Romanesque church, with work continuing through major changes until 1490. This extended building period allowed multiple architectural styles to be incorporated into the structure over time.

The church has been used jointly by Catholics and Protestants since the 16th century, making it the oldest simultaneum in the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland. The name Dom was adopted at the end of the 17th century, after Archbishop Karl Kaspar von der Leyen of Trier also took the office of provost in 1671, although the church was never a bishop's seat. Today a Catholic and an Evangelical Dompfarrer share the building.

The church stands in Wetzlar's old town, a short walk from the Lahn riverbank. The west front is still missing its northern belfry, so the two-tower facade appears lopsided from the square. The south tower carries the baroque roof that replaced the wooden spire destroyed by fire in 1561. Look for the Romanesque west portal, parts of which survive in the later building.

The northern belfry of the west front was begun around 1336 but never finished, so the church still lacks one of its two planned towers. The southern tower's steep wooden spire burned down in 1561 and was replaced by the baroque roof seen today.