The art historian Jacob Burckhardt said in 1869 in a series of lectures on the 116 -meter-high tower in comparison with Basel and Strasbourg:
"And Freiburg will probably remain the most beautiful tower on earth".
From this evolved probably the often heard, but not quite literal quote from the most beautiful tower of Christendom.
Art historians from around the world praise the Freiburg Cathedral of Our Lady with the prominent West Tower as an architectural masterpiece of Gothic.

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