I wonder if they even measured the height in 1569. I'm sure that they could, but I don't know whether they cared about whether one building was a meter or two taller than some other building. I think they cared more about grandeur and the perceived awe rather than guinness-style records. Certainly many would have advertised themselves as being the tallest. To my knowledge there was no central book of such records. I wonder in which year was it determined that this cathedral held the record. Was it only centuries later when some architect student did a thesis?
They were certainly capable of measuring the height. The tools have been known since antiquity. They couldn't build something like this without them.
And they were definitely competing with each other to build the tallest and most spectacular cathedral. There wasn't an official record book, but the architects were always aware of who was claiming to be tallest. If they didn't want to take the claim for granted, it was easy enough to go measure it yourself.
Just for one example: Ulm Minster was specifically designed to be taller than the one at Cologne:
It's actually a little ungainly-looking for that. The tower is out of proportion to the rest of it.
It wasn't just cathedrals. They were doing the same things with bell towers. The Leaning Tower of Pisa doesn't need to be that tall -- and if they'd built a more reasonably-sized tower, it would have been more stable.
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I wonder if they even measured the height in 1569. I'm sure that they could, but I don't know whether they cared about whether one building was a meter or two taller than some other building. I think they cared more about grandeur and the perceived awe rather than guinness-style records. Certainly many would have advertised themselves as being the tallest. To my knowledge there was no central book of such records. I wonder in which year was it determined that this cathedral held the record. Was it only centuries later when some architect student did a thesis?
They were certainly capable of measuring the height. The tools have been known since antiquity. They couldn't build something like this without them.
And they were definitely competing with each other to build the tallest and most spectacular cathedral. There wasn't an official record book, but the architects were always aware of who was claiming to be tallest. If they didn't want to take the claim for granted, it was easy enough to go measure it yourself.
Just for one example: Ulm Minster was specifically designed to be taller than the one at Cologne:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulm_Minster
It's actually a little ungainly-looking for that. The tower is out of proportion to the rest of it.
It wasn't just cathedrals. They were doing the same things with bell towers. The Leaning Tower of Pisa doesn't need to be that tall -- and if they'd built a more reasonably-sized tower, it would have been more stable.
The important thing is it's 2021 and we're still doing the pissing contest of tallest building.