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How was Cologne Cathedral finally completed in 1880?
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Cologne
The Hohenzollern rail and pedestrian bridge over the Rhine River, Cologne, Germany, with the city's cathedral in the background.
After construction stalled for centuries, the completion of Cologne Cathedral was driven by a 19th-century resurgence of interest in the Gothic Revival movement. Restoration efforts began in the 1820s, encouraged by the German proponent Sulpiz Boisserée.
In 1842, King Frederick William IV of Prussia laid a new cornerstone, allowing work to resume in earnest. The project was carried out by architects Ernst Friedrich Zwirner and Richard Voigtel, who were guided by original architectural drawings dating back to approximately 1300. Following these historical plans, the massive undertaking was finally brought to completion in 1880.12