Over one thousand years ago, in the year 990, Willigis, Archbishop of Mainz and Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, endowed a collegiate foundation here and had the church built as the “Empire’s Place of Prayer”. The constructor of the cathedral was himself laid to rest in St. Stephen’s in 1011. The new Gothic building was erected between 1290 and 1335. It stands on the foundations of the basilica built in Ottonian-pre-Romanesque style around 990. When the (gun) Powder Tower located nearby blew up in 1857, St. Stephen’s was also badly damaged. The rich baroque decoration was removed during the reconstruction.
Today, the house of God presents itself as a clearly arranged hall church with a nave and two side aisles in which the Gothic vaults have not yet been restored. The walls are finished in white with the red sandstone of the supporting architectural parts forming an attractive contrast. The structure’s 66 metre high, spacious tower probably still dates back to Willigis’s church up to the level of the of the pointed arch frieze. A wide crack in the tower was already repaired in 1947. The dome and lantern were added again for the city’s two-thousandth anniversary in 1962.