Mainz Cathedral: Overall view elevated view, showing the later construction of the west end

The cathedral of the archbishops of Mainz, who were high chancellors and electors of the Holy Roman Empire, is dedicated to SS Martin and Stephan and is one of the three 'imperial cathedrals' on the Rhine, the other two being Speyer and Worms. After Speyer, it is the earliest of the great German vaulted cathedrals, and it is an important example of Middle Rhenish Romanesque architecture. The interior of the cathedral houses tombs and funerary monuments of former powerful Electoral-prince-archbishops, or Kurf\u00FCrst-Erzbisch\u00F6fe. This is the third building on the site, the first was begun ca. 975, destroyed 1009; the second was burnt in 1081.