The Swiss historian
Jacob Burckhardt once said that the church's 116-meter tower
will forever remain the most beautiful spire on earth. The tower is nearly square at the base, and at its centre is the dodecagonal star gallery. Above this gallery, the tower is octagonal and tapered, and above this, is the spire. Freiburg Minster is the only
Gothic church tower within the current borders of Germany that was completed in the Middle Ages (1330), considering the
Strasbourg Cathedral is now located in France. Freiburg was not the seat of a bishop until 1827, long after it was built. The cathedral has lasted intact until the present, surviving the
bombing raids of November 1944, which destroyed all of the houses on the west and north side of the market. The tower was subject to severe vibration at the time, and its survival of these vibrations is attributed to its lead anchors, which connect the sections of the spire. The windows had been taken out of the spire at the time by church staff led by Monsignor Max Fauler, and so these also suffered no damage. The tower has 16 bells, the oldest being the "Hosanna" bell from 1258, which weighs 3,290 kilograms. This bell can be heard on Thursday evening after the
Angelus, on Friday at 11:00 am (a time consequently known as "Spätzleglocke"), on Saturday evenings, and each year on 27 November in remembrance of the air raid. ==Interior==