Exploring the cathedral

You are cordially invited to attend any of our Masses, devotions, choir concerts and organ recitals. The cathedral is also open for private prayer and personal devotion. Please feel free to explore the cathedral on your own and at your own pace.

On Sundays and public holidays, you may visit the cathedral from 1 pm until the cathedral closes.

Please note that short-term partial closures owing to important events may occur. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Guided tours

Guided tours in St Peter’s Cathedral can be conducted only by an authorized Cathedral guide. Guided tours for groups up to 20 people in English, Italian and French can be booked by → e-mail DOMPLATZ 5 (Cathedral Information Center).

The construction of the building

Documentary evidence of an “ecclesia sancti Petri” exists from 788 on (the first cathedral). In the last quarter of the tenth century, a basilica with nave and two side aisles was built in the area of today’s stonemason’s yard (the second cathedral). This was extended westwards considerably in the first half of the eleventh century; the so-called “Eselsturm” or “Donkey Tower” was part of this. A fire in 1273 and a growing interest in the “modern” Gothic style led to the decision to build a completely new cathedral, starting in 1275-76 – the present St Peter’s Cathedral, built in French Gothic style (the third cathedral).

For the first phase of construction, the master builder followed a very traditional, Romanesque-oriented design (south choir). A second phase of construction began in 1295, with the erection of a “trial window” in the main choir. The walls, built of solid stone up to that point, dissolved into diaphanous, transparent surfaces. A stupendous glasshouse with the typical French Gothic tripartite elevation (arcade, triforium and clerestory) arose in the main choir. The first stained glass windows were installed ca. 1310-15. Section by section, over more than two centuries, the rest of the cathedral was built – choir, transept, nave and west facade with its triangular portal. The beginning of the sixteenth century was a time of economic downturn, religious upheaval, and social unrest in Regensburg, and the construction of the cathedral came to a halt around 1520.

The interior walls of the cathedral were white in the Middle Ages. In the Baroque era, ca. 1620-30, they were painted an ochre colour, rather like gold, and later, around 1700, a grey-green olive tone. Baroque altars, musicians’ tribunes, elaborate funeral monuments and huge paintings considerably changed the character of the interior of the cathedral. The magnificent silver altar in the choir was constructed over a period from 1675 to 1785, with donations from several bishops and the Cathedral Chapter. In 1697, in place of the tower originally planned, a richly painted and decorated cupola was built over the crossing.

General plan of the cathedral