During the early 10th century, the House of Babenberg lost a bloody feud against the Rhenish-Franconian family of the Konradines. Their property fell to the royal house and in 973 Otto II gave it as a gift to his cousin Heinrich the Brawler, whose son Emperor Heinrich II would later feel attracted to Bamberg.
Diocese foundation
In the year 1007, Henry II founded the diocese of Bamberg and raised the city of Bamberg, through the establishment of his Imperial Palace, to one of the most important centers of power of the Empire. After the founding of the diocese, the consecration of the first Cathedral of Bamberg took place in the year 1012. However, in 1081 and 1185 two fires fell victim to this, forcing the cathedral chapter to rebuild the cathedral. In honour of Henry, it was decided to make the church larger and more magnificent with two choirs and four towers – although such an architecture was already considered obsolete in the 13th century.
Romanesque meets Gothic
From the outside it is easy to see that the construction of Bamberg Cathedral fell into a period of architectural upheaval. The windows in the east choir are Romanesque, while the towers and west choir are Gothic. Such style changes in the building structure of medieval churches are not unusual, as buildings such as the Bamberg Cathedral employed several generations of craftsmen and builders, who all had their own ideas about the aesthetics of architecture.
