A Symphony of Light
A first glimpse of the Kolner Dom is breathtaking. Itâs so big!
The great Cologne Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the great churches -- great buildings -- in existence. Whatâs also remarkable is the work of a renowned modern artist inside.
Begun in 1248, the building of this Gothic masterpiece took place in several stages and was not completed until 1880. Over seven centuries, its successive builders were inspired by an absolute commitment to the original plans. Â Apart from its exceptional intrinsic value and the artistic masterpieces it contains, the Kolner Dom epitomizes the strength and endurance of European Christianity. Few other structures on the Continent are so perfectly conceived, and so uniformly and uncompromisingly executed.
That it survived directed hits from 14 large Allied bombs during World War II is almost miraculous, especially when the fates of the surrounding neighborhood and other German cathedrals is taken into consideration. In fact, the walkways around the Cathedralâs exterior are intentionally adorned with cornice elements that fell from the façade during the bombings.  Even today, war-related repairs are ongoing and officials say it will be an ever-lasting work zone.
The cathedral itself was hit at least seventy times but did not entirely collapse and, as one of the few standing structures in Cologne, it became a symbol of German rebirth.
The Cologne Cathedral is a High Gothic basilica that is 144 meters long with a tower façade that soars 157 meters high.  Thatâs so tall that for about four years upon its completion in 1880, the Dom was the tallest structure in the world!  There are numerous significant elements â including the high altar with an enormous monolithic slab of black limestone, believed to be the largest in any Christian church.  There are carved oak choir stalls that date to the 14th century, as do the painted choir screens, and the fourteen statues on the pillars in the choir.  There is also an outstanding series of tombs of twelve archbishops between 976 and 1612.
Another destination for pilgrims inside the Cathedral is the 12th century Shrine of the Magi which is believed to house the relics of the Three Wise Men and is the largest shrine of relics in Europe. Â
And there are other artistic masterpieces like the 14th Century altarpiece of St. Clare brought here in 1811 from a destroyed cloister church of the Franciscan nuns, and the altarpiece of the City Patrons circa. 1445.
 Also present in the Cathedral is the great cycle of stained-glass windows, the largest existent cycle of early 14th century windows in Europe. During World War Two, many of the stained glass windows were stored for preservation sake.  Of those left in place, windows dating to the late 19th century in the Cathedralâs South Transept were shattered.  It was not until the early 21st Century that a move was made to do something about that.
Enter Dresden-born Gerhard Richter, one of Germanyâs most famous modern artists.
Surviving black-and-white photographs showed that the original window, designed in 1863, depicted several secular and ecclesiastical leaders. Because its designs were lost to fire, the decision was made to commission an original window by a contemporary artist.
Richter, despite being one of the most celebrated living artists in Germany, may have initially seemed an unusual choice for such a prominent work of contemporary religious art. Â He is, after all, adamantly agnostic. Still, he had lived in Cologne since 1998 and three of his children were baptized in the Kolner Dom.Â
Beginning in the 1960s, Richter had developed a series of works based on the color chart of a manufacturer of printer's ink. Â In these pieces, the colors were placed randomly, ordered according to a sort of mathematic lottery.
 As he mulled his options for the South Transept windows, Richter was playing around with a reproduction of one of those abstract paintings of colored squares when he dropped a template of the window over the abstraction and thought, 'My God! That's it!'
Richter told the cathedral staff that this was the only kind of window he could make. 'We talked about it again and again then finally they said - OK, we'll do it. It was brave of them.'
The hand-blown glass panels were made and put together in accordance with a randomizing computer program in which each color is assigned a number. The panels are arranged exactly as the numbers emerge.
65-feet tall, it consists of 11,500 panes of glass, made by forming a bubble into a cylinder, which, when cooled, is divided along its length. The glass is then reheated and flattened, giving it an uneven texture, with light-refracting ripples.
That said, the windows do not depict martyrs or saints. And that did not sit well with the archbishop of Cologne.
Cardinal Joachim Meisner, did not like it and said so. He told a newspaper that it 'belongs equally in a mosque or another house of prayer', adding that 'if we are going to have a new window, then it should be one that reflects our faith, not just any faith.' Â The cardinal was angry, Richter reflects, because his window is not a Catholic window. But the interesting thing is that it looks entirely in place in its grand ecclesiastical setting. The glass may be entirely contemporary, even high-tech - one frequent comparison is with pixels - but there has been glittering light and color in Christian churches for a thousand years. Â
At the inauguration ceremony, the window was described as producing a "symphony of light"
In fact, when directly sunlit, Richterâs south-facing window admits a wash of illumination into the cathedralâs gloomy immensity; at other times, it glows or shimmers. It is beautiful, grand, and entrancing.
In 1988, Richter said: âArt is the pure realization of religious feeling, capacity for faith, longing for GodâŠ. The ability to believe is our most outstanding quality, and only art adequately translates it into reality. But when we assuage our need for faith with an ideology, we court disaster.â