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Imperial cathedral
(foundation)
Cathedral
Building details
Cost Gold coins 50000 · Wood 80 · Tools 40 · Stone 100
Maintenance Maintenance cost 500 (Inactive: Maintenance cost 250)
Prerequisites Nobleman 2000 Noblemen
Size 18 x 11
Icon Cathedral icon
First part of the Monument.
Creates a Construction area for Peasant houses.
Satisfies all Building needs of the Occident when completed.

The Imperial cathedral is the final Occidental Monument and the signature building of the Campaign. It is the most expensive and difficult Monument in the game, requiring vast numbers of Building materials and taking more than 3 hours to complete. Once completed, however, it satisfies all Public building requirements in it Influence area. It also creates a Construction area for Peasant houses, though it will not provide the Need for Company to Peasant houses in this area until it is completed. Lord Northburgh will reward the player with Honor 1000 Honour after completing the Imperial cathedral. This will also cause the Emperor to arrive in the region, at which point he will start occasionally giving Emperor quests. Simultaneously, Lord Northburgh will start offering some of the most powerful Items in the game, like the pet dolphin.

Note: The "We have no time to lose!" Setup Achievement requires the player to Build an Imperial cathedral within 7 in-game hours in a Difficult Continuous game.

Details[]

Cathedral icon Tools Tools Wood Wood Stone Stone Glass Glass Maintenance cost Maintenance Nobleman Prerequisites Hourglass Time
Scaffolding 160 300 - - 500 2000 Noblemen 40
Masonry 360 - 540 - 600 2500 Noblemen 60
Windows 720 - - 270 750 3500 Noblemen 90
COMPLETE 1,280 380 640 270 1,000 - 190

Before construction can begin, the Imperial cathedral foundation will need to be placed. The foundation is unlocked at Nobleman 2000 Noblemen, at which point we'll have 40 minutes to reach the prerequisite for the next Phase of Construction. If you don't feel confident that you can reach the next prerequisites in time for the next Phase of Construction, it might be advisable to delay building the Imperial cathedral foundation until you've further expanded your Settlement to avoid paying a lot of maintenance for an unfinished Cathedral. To reach the final prerequisite of Nobleman 3500 Noblemen, we'll need at least 88 Noblemen houses.

Construction[]

Monuments, just like Production buildings, need to retrieve the Raw materials they consume. While we could technically have the Master builders retrieve the materials directly from Production buildings within its Influence area, the high demand and placement within the center of our Settlement makes it more advisable to have a Trade building in range from which the Building materials can be retrieved.

We can calculate the Cathedral's Consumption rate by dividing the total Resource cost of each stage by the time it takes to complete it. This consumption rate neatly matches up with the Production speed of the Building material Plants that supply it. The number of Production buildings for each Phase of Construction is shown below. Note that Construction speed increasing effects from Items or the Academy of Wisdom increase the number of Production buildings needed to supply the Construction.[1] This is of course not the case for Items that also include a Construction cost reduction, like the Items given during Chapter 8 of the Campaign.

Goods Phase I Phase II Phase III
Tools Tools 2 3 4
Wood Wood 5 - -
Stone Stone - 4.5 -
Glass Glass - - 3

Hints[]

It is inadvisable to start an Imperial Cathedral unless you have a good cash flow and have, or will soon have, 3,500 Noblemen on that island. There are several expensive production chains to build (like candlesticks), as well as expanding the capacity of existing chains, as you approach 3,500 Noblemen.

A construction plan item for the foundation exists, but its usefulness depends on what version of the game you're playing:

  • In Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery), blueprint items permanently require a socket. (The building is destroyed if the plan is unsocketed, even a finished Cathedral!) Since blueprints only save the initial placement resources, the socket can be put to much better use. Selling a Cathedral blueprint yields 175 Honor, which is always useful.
  • In Anno 1404 Venice, plan items were changed to be consumed upon use. This means that they save you the placement cost of buildings. Using them can save you considerable resources, especially with expensive placements like foundations.

Once you have socketed a plan, its tooltip will tell you if unsocketing the item will destroy the structure. (Save your game first if unsure.)

Trivia[]

Like the Sultan's Mosque is inspired by its real-life monument, The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Imperial Cathedral is inspired by The Notre-Dame Cathedral / Cologne Cathedral

The help incorrectly says that it "satisfies all building needs of the Occident, even when under construction", but it only allows you to place any building in its radius during construction.

Despite a number of mentions about Inhabitants thresholds needing to be satisfied on the Island of the Construction site, (at least in the base game) this does not appear to be true. I completed an Imperial Cathedral on an Island that had 0 Inhabitants and no Marketplaces even. Further experiments on Venice version show no difference to the base game.

Notes[]

  1. The amount of required Production buildings can be calculated by taking the number shown and dividing it by (1 - [speedup percentage])
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