Engelbert's successor, Conrad of Hochsteden, furthered the plans, whoever may have been their creator, and work on the new edifice was begun a few months after the destruction of the older one.
On August 14, 1248, the foundation-stone of the new structure was laid, forty-four feet below the surface of the ground.
The portion first erected was the choir, and for ages it stood, as it stands in its completed form to-day, as perfect an example of the style of its period as is extant.
For seventy years this choir was taking form, until it was consecrated on September 27, 1322.
The occasion was a great one for Cologne[{251}] and for the church. The ceremony was attended by much glitter and pomp, both ecclesiastical and civil.
No sooner was the choir completed than it was embellished as befitted the shrine of the three kings.
Coloured glass, stone, and wood-carving, and the art of the gold and jewel smith all blended to give a magnificence to the whole which was perhaps unapproachable elsewhere at the time.
Then, for a time, enthusiasm and labour languished. For nearly two centuries the work was pursued by the prelates and architects in a most desultory and intermittent fashion.
The choir had been completed, and to the westward considerable progress had been made, but there was a gaunt ugly gap between. It would seem as though there were no intention of ever joining the scattered parts, which were linked only by the foundation-stones, for the nave and aisles were left merely covered with temporary roofs.
Then the Reformation came, and that boded no good for the cathedral. The people looked askance at the symbol of such great power in the hands of Rome.[{252}]