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The façade of Strasbourg Cathedral was begun shortly after the completion of the nave in 1275. Here the famous wall grilles of the Flamboyant building of Saint-Urbain in Troyes are taken to extremes through "tracery harps," so that in the portals, for example, three layers are staggered one behind the other: at the front the decorated gable, behind it a screen of tracery, and only then the actual wall. Even the gigantic rose window in the middle of the façade stands out from the background by virtue of the fact that the spandrels are free-standing circles of tracery in front of the rose.
The façade was first designed by Erwin von Steinbach who was a central figure in the construction of the Strasbourg Cathedral.
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