Dom Cathedral Cologne

Drove through Germany yesterday along the river Rhine. Stopped at Cologne to see the Dom. It is immense, the biggest cathedral I ever saw. This is the front entrance and an impression about details and work it took to complete it.
The cathedral suffered seventy hits by aerial bombs during World War II. It did not collapse, but stood tall in an otherwise flattened city. The great twin spires are said to have been used as an easily recognizable navigational landmark by Allied aircraft raiding deeper into Germany in the later years of the war, which may be a reason that the cathedral was not destroyed. It has been claimed that in June 1945 American troops used the cathedral as a rifle range.