Begun as a Romanesque church in the 13th century, Freiburg’s awe-inspiring minster would take another 300 years to complete.Despite the destruction wreaked around Münsterplatz in 1944, the minster came through with only minor damage.In 1869 the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt described the 116-metre tower as the most beautiful in the world, and it’s hard to disagree.For three years after it was completed in 1330 the tower was also the highest in the world and is a hollow, highly ornamented mass of tracery and pinnacles.The amount of artistry on the facade alone is astounding: The tympanum and archivolts on the portal have 418 stone figured carved at the end of the 1200s.