Conrad II had in 1024 commissioned the construction of the Christian Western world's largest church, which is also meant to be his final resting place.

Construction begins in 1030 on the site of a former basilica which stood on an elevated plateau right by the Rhine but safe from high water.

Along with Santiago de Compostela (begun 1075), Cluny Abbey (Cluny III, begun 1085), and Durham Cathedral (begun 1093), it was the most ambitious project of the age.

The red sandstone for the building comes from the mountains of the Palatine Forest and is thought to have been shipped down the channeled Speyerbach, a stream running from the mountains into the Rhine at Speyer.

As with the earlier imperial cathedral at Mainz, the arcaded wall elevations and the articulated spaces introduced in the abbey churches will achieve the enormous scale characteristic of the Rhenish early Romanesque churches.

Multiple towers will make an appearance on the Speyer cathedral.