The Cathédrale Notre-Dame (German: Straßburger Münster, English: Our Lady's Cathedral) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Strasbourg. It is widely considered to be among the finest examples of "high", or late, gothic architecture. After the 1015 cathedral built here was burned in 1176, the construction of this cathedral was begun in a Romanesque style. In 1225 a team coming from Chartres revolutionized the construction by contributing a Gothic architecture style. The building was completed in 1439. Its size and location makes it difficult to get the entire structure in one photograph, so we will see a number of them.

From a side view we can better appreciate the stone 'lacework' in the façade.

The interior is no less impressive. This is the altar area.

Some of the stained glass is from the 13th century.

Here we see the large rose window, almost 50 feet in diameter.

This is a large astronomical clock in the cathedral.

A view of flying buttresses at the side of the cathedral.

While on a boat ride on the canals of Strasbourg we saw more of the Old Town.

The next day we were on our own and some of us saw the Gutenberg statue in a square named after him.

Many of us also wandered over to the area called 'la Petite France.'

This area is called the Tanner's Quarter.

This building is now a restaurant.

Elizabeth and Don had a great lunch there: moules, frites, bread and Alsatian beer.

In a search for connections with the Reformation, we visited St. Thomas Church, which is now a Protestant church. Its building began in 1270 and was completed in the 14th century. It has a façade that derives from its Romanesque past, and a nave that is Gothic.

The Reformation was introduced into St. Thomas as soon as 1524 and strongly developed by Martin Bucer (Butzer in German.) He was the Reformer of Strasbourg and was a pastor here from 1524 to 1540. Bucer had a great influence on John Calvin during the three years that Calvin was in Strasbourg. This is a plaque in the church in honor of Bucer's ministry there.

The original console of the 1741 Silbermann organ has been installed in a free-standing exhibit at the west end of the nave. The manual keyboards and the black stop knobs are original, while the pedalboard and stop knobs in the upper right-hand group date from the end of the eighteenth century and later. One of the treasures of the church, the organ was played by Mozart in 1778, and also played later by Albert Schweitzer.

Continue on to Basel.