Cathédrale Notre Dame

Lonely Planet review

Strasbourg's lacy, almost fragile-looking Gothic Cathédrale Notre Dame is one of the marvels of European architecture. The west façade, most impressive if approached from rue Mercière, was completed in 1284, but the 142m spire - the tallest of its time - was not in place until 1439; its southern companion was never built. The cathedral served as a Protestant church from 1521 to 1681.

On a sunny day, the 12th- to 14th-century stained-glass windows - especially the rose window over the western portal - shine like jewels. The colourful, gilded organ case on the northern side dates from the 14th century, while the 30m-high Gothic and Renaissance contraption just inside the southern entrance is the horloge astronomique (astronomical clock), a late-16th-century clock (the mechanism dates from 1842) that strikes solar noon every day at 12:30 . There's an around €1 charge to see the carved wooden figures whirl through their paces, which is why only the cathedral's south entrance is open from about 11:40 until the end of the show.