Located on the west bank of the river
Rhine, opposite the confluence of the
Main with the Rhine,
Mainz was an important military town throughout
Roman times, and later an important center of the
Carolingian Empire, and a centre for the Christianisation of the
German and
Slavic peoples. One of the early archbishops of Mainz was
Willigis (975-1011), who began construction of the cathedral. Since those times until the end of the
Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the
Archbishops of Mainz were archchancellors of the Empire and the most important of the seven
Electors of the German emperor. Besides Rome, the
diocese of Mainz today is the only diocese in the world with an episcopal see that is called a
Holy See (sancta sedes). The Archbishops of Mainz traditionally were primas germaniae, the substitutes of the
Pope north of the
Alps. Between 11th and 13th centuries not less than six monarchs were crowned in the cathedral.
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