Freiburg Minster, Gothic cathedral in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
Freiburg Minster is a Gothic Catholic church in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, with a 116 meter (381 feet) tall stone tower. The structure is built from carved stone and shapes the skyline of the old town with its openwork spire.
Construction began in 1200 under Duke Berthold V of Zähringen in Romanesque style. The shift to Gothic design occurred in 1230, giving the building its present form with the characteristic tower.
The name "Münster" appears in a 1356 charter of Countess Klara of Tübingen, referring to the Gothic enlargement; the parish church had been called "ecclesia parochialis" in 1298. The Hosanna bell of 1258, weighing 3,290 kg, is rung on Thursday after the Angelus, Friday at 11:00 (the Spätzleglocke), Saturday evenings, and each 27 November for the 1944 air raid. The nave windows carry the symbols of the guilds that donated them.
The tower is nearly square at its base, with a dodecagonal star gallery, an octagonal tapered section above it and the spire on top. The Hosanna bell of 1258, weighing 3,290 kg, rings on Thursday evening after the Angelus, Friday at 11:00 (the Spätzleglocke), Saturday evenings and each 27 November.
The tower's survival of the 1944 vibrations is credited to its lead anchors, which join the sections of the spire. Church staff under Monsignor Max Fauler had already removed the spire's windows, so the glass came through the raid undamaged.
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