Strasbourg Cathedral concludes year of millenary celebrations

The cathedral of Notre Dame de Strasbourg held a commemorative ceremony on Sunday to conclude a year of celebrations around the millenary anniversary of the laying of its foundations in September 1015.

Representatives of the French state and the Council of Europe, which is headquartered in Strasbourg, attended the ceremony, which closed a series of events that started on Sept. 7, 2014.

Some of the events held during the celebrations included a summer light show projected onto the cathedral facade, a competition to design a new stained glass window to be installed later this month, and a scale model of the cathedral as it might have appeared in the middle of the 11th century.

A UNESCO world heritage site, Notre Dame de Strasbourg is famous for its rose-colored sandstone and the ornate decoration of its late gothic architecture. The cathedral was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874, with the tip of its single spire reaching a height of 142 meters.

As recently as May 2015, the European flag was flown from the spire for the first time, in order to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. The choice was symbolic of the Alsace region's shared history with both France and Germany.

While it still serves the local Catholic community, the Strasbourg cathedral has become a symbol of the larger city and the region, attracting tourists to Alsace from around the world.

The cathedral forecourt plays host to part of Strasbourg's annual Christmas Market, which was voted the best European Christmas Market in 2014 for the second year in a row and welcomes up to one million extra tourists to Strasbourg every year. Endi