NG Man Made - Cologne Cathedral (2011)

20,000 people visit Cologne Cathedral every day; that's a total of six million visitors per year. For many art historians, the cathedral is the "most Gothic of Gothic cathedrals", architecture par excellence.
In 1880, when it was completed, the cathedral was the tallest building in the world. This documentary sets out to examine the public's fascination with this Gothic masterpiece using cinematic re-enactments and breathtaking imagery and animations. It tells its history, sets it in the context of an exciting era and ventures back in time to the century in which it was built.
Everything has a purpose: every ornament, every stone, every column, every arch, every room. Everything has its place, its form and thus its own meaning, its own deep symbolism. Cologne Cathedral is a stone creed, a book that hardly anyone can read anymore.
Cinematic re-enactments and breathtaking imagery and animations present Cologne's cathedral as a "little piece of heaven". Those who delve into its secrets will most certainly stumble on the reason why it was actually built in the first place, its role as a palace to house what were the most valuable relics of the Middle Ages: the remains of the Three Magi.
The film also addresses the weaknesses of the impressive monument, which could not have survived without the enthusiasm and dedication of its "caretakers". This is an homage to an extraordinary structure.