Cologne (or Köln in German) is one of the most heavily visited cities in Germany because of its ancient and medieval heritage and its picturesque setting along the Rhine. With a population of approximately one million, the city is located on the southern edge of Germany’s largest urban area, the Ruhr District in Rhineland-Westfallen.
Despite this suggestion of urban sprawl, Cologne is actually a quite enjoyable city with numerous bridges over the Rhine, walkways along the river, extensive pedestrian malls and plenty of outdoor pubs that serve kölsch, the local beer. Because the city is a quite large and modern, Cologne offers high quality restaurants, art museums and other, unique cultural attractions such as perfume or ‘cologne’ distributors and chocolate factories.
However, for me, the main attraction in Cologne is its 2000 year history. This city was founded in the first century B.C. by Agrippa, a senior Roman military leader during the reign of Augustus (27 B.C. – 14 A.D.). The name Cologne is derived from the city’s Roman name of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, originating from when it was designated a ‘colony’ in the first century. The city remained a prominent Roman center for several centuries before evolving into an important ecclesiastical and economic center during the Middle Ages. This long history is exemplified especially in the Cologne Cathedral as well as the Roman walls, sewers, numerous churches and many historic museums.
Kölner Dom
Located next to the railway station and near the Rhine River, the massive Cologne cathedral is the most obvious attraction in the city. Referred to as the Kölner Dom by the Germans, the cathedral is a massive Gothic structure that dominates the central part of the city.
The exterior is overwhelming with spires, pointed arches and numerous statues extending to the heavens. The three western entrances feature massive wooden doors surrounded by arches with statues of saints, rulers and bishops. These two doors coincide with two 515 foot tall bell towers, both of which would rival a 40 story building. The late medieval Gothic style of architecture included advances in technique that allowed the construction of higher towers, so during the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries massive towers began to emerge in places like Cologne, Salisbury, Ulm, Chartres, and Paris. Often these were the tallest structures in these cities until the advent of skyscrapers and broadcast towers in the twentieth century. The Gothic style demonstrated how far zealous believers would go to create a heavenly place on earth.
This late medieval structure is not the first church on this site. An earlier basilica was built in the fourth century in Roman Cologne, and a second structure, parts of which can still be seen beneath the present Gothic cathedral, was built in the ninth century.
Gothic Statues
The present structure was built in 1248 in response to the massive numbers of pilgrims who converged on Cologne to view its most famous relic, the remains of the Three Kings or the Magi who visited Christ right after His birth. The remains of the Magi were brought from Milan in the twelfth century after that city was razed by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Around 1200, the remains of the Magi were placed in a well crafted gold chest and then put on display near the altar.
Construction continued on the cathedral for three centuries until the project was halted in 1560 with only the eastern part of the church and the lower parts of the western entrance completed. A wooden construction crane remained in place on the partially finished structure for the next three centuries, as Cologne weathered the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution.
In the nineteenth century enthusiasm for the Middle Ages ensued and work began anew on the Cathedral. The structure as we see it today was largely completed in 1880. The most impressive parts of the cathedral, the two spires and the top part of the nave, were only constructed just over 100 years ago.
Today Cologne Cathedral still draws thousands of visitors, though it is probably not accurate to describe them as ‘pilgrims.’ Actually, visitors are only allowed into the church between services, which seem to occur several times throughout the day. If you arrive during a service and appear as an obvious tourist (brandishing a camera or holding a Japanese tour guide is generally a dead giveaway), you will not be allowed past the immediate entry area. Now, if you put your camera in your bag and decide to attend the service, they will allow it, but then you have to find a place to sit for the duration of the service and follow along. Naturally they don’t want people wandering about and taking pictures while they are conducting communion. I had to come back three times before I could finally tour the entire church and see the remains of the Magi.
Cathedral Interior, Nave
If the cathedral appears massive from the outside, the interior is downright overwhelming. Lofty columns reach an impossible height above the puny crowds of tourists. The upper parts of the nave are lit by sunlight, or in the evening hours by hidden lamps, but the floor level seems perpetually dark, save for clusters of candles in the chapels around the church. Odors of smoke and melting wax permeate the interior. The stain glass windows hang high over the dimly lit nave, a contrast of red and blue against the flickering candles.
In addition to the golden receptacle of the Magi, the cathedral also includes several other interesting relics including a thirteenth century wall painting and a tenth century crucifix. Also, it is possible to climb into one of the bell towers, although the stairs are quite steep and narrow as they wind their way up through the tower. The climb is a significant workout, amplified by the sense of dizziness from climbing a long circular staircase.
St. Gereon
Cologne had dozens of other churches in addition to the cathedral, many that were more than a thousand years old. Cologne, like other major medieval cities, was literally filled with churches as it was built over the centuries, and many have survived revolutions, secularizations and air raids. I attended services at St. Gereon, which dates back to the fourth century, although the current building is a heavily restored eleventh century structure with beautiful stone arches illuminated by bright white lamps. I also attended a service at St Pantaleon, a remarkable Romanesque structure on the west side of the city from the tenth century. The Byzantine born Empress Theophano (956-991) is buried there.
After visiting the cathedral and other churches in Cologne, I decided that it was time to explore the more modern aspects of the city. The central part of Cologne is the primary shopping area for the city, so it is filled with expensive department stores, bookstores and the like along with numerous coffee shops and cafes that served kölsch, the local beer. The main shopping area was a mile long pedestrian only street that roughly followed the alignment of the Roman main thoroughfare (decumanus maximus) from almost 2000 years before. Of course there is no obvious historical connection between modern stores like Burger King, the Gap, or Galeria-Kaufhof and Roman or medieval markets, but the throngs of people shelling out Euros or swiping their Visa cards near medieval markets like Huymarkt, Altmarkt or Fischmarkt does suggest a sense of continuity.
I couldn’t believe the extant of the pedestrian mall, with throngs of people of all nationalities wandering around a mile long street. And you could just walk down the center of the street without having to watch for cars. The city center of Cologne is the primary retail area, unlike the United States where most people go to the “box” stores on the outskirts of cities. I never feel the urge to rent a car when I am in Europe, because walking and the transit options seem more than sufficient, mainly because of this centralization.
The advantage of the German model; you can take a train or street car to the city center, see most of the historic or cultural highlights, eat at diverse places, and also spend a couple hours shopping in a foreign culture. By contrast, the American (or perhaps Anglo Saxon) model tends to limit you to either shopping or seeing cultural sights or spending a considerable amount of time in a car driving from one place to another because everything seems to be kept in separate areas.
The city of Cologne has grown quite a bit over the centuries, as the different historic walls around the city center demonstrate. The Roman walls from the second century are built only around the immediate city center, whereas a set of thirteenth century walls enclose an area about three times as large, showing that the late medieval city was much larger than the original Roman settlement. And the modern city with its own form of walls, a half circle formed by two busy autobahnen, is about ten times as large as the medieval city.
Roman Wall
One evening I decided to walk around the circumference of the Roman city by following the remains of the brick walls. I was surprised at how much of these 1800-year-old walls still remained, although they tended to be components of other structures. One segment of the wall was only visible inside the parking garage underneath the cathedral. One section of this segment was a bit wider, with an opening protruding into it. According to my tour guide, this is where the Archbishop Anno fled the city during a revolt by the local merchants in 1074.
Other sections of the wall formed a foundation for buildings, with one section actually being inside a business office. I looked through the window into the reception area and saw a familiar pattern of rough red bricks forming one wall of the office. Other sections were covered with ivy and other green vegetation or formed the boundary between two different high-rise tenements. Even though the area enclosed by the Roman walls represented a small part of the city, it still took me good two or three hours to walk around the entire circumference, although admittedly I did stop along the way for a bottle or two of kölsch, which I could take with me without getting arrested.
Roman Burial Inscription
The Roman walls are not the only remaining structure of Cologne’s 2000 year history. Near the Cologne Cathedral is the Römisch-Germanisches Museum, a vast collection of Roman finds from the Cologne region. The most prominent exhibits were the remains of burial sites which lined the roads approaching the city, but other exhibits included kitchenware, artifacts of daily life like razors and dice, and mosaic floors from Roman palaces, including one that featured 1800 year old swastikas. Also under the modern city were the remains of a Roman praetorium (palace) eerily illuminated by blue, yellow, and green lights and a segment of a Roman sewage tunnel (no longer in use).
At the conclusion of my wall circuit, I walked around the outside of St Maria im Kapitol, another late Roman church built on the sight of a Roman temple. This church included an eleventh century set of ornately carved wooden doors that featured scenes from the life of Christ. As I walked around the exterior of this structure, still following the Roman wall, I could smell smoke and melting wax coming from the area of either the church or a nearby building. I then heard the distinct two tone sound of a fire engine approaching. In a few minutes, a couple fire trucks and police cars pulled up to investigate a possible fire. Just my luck to be standing next to a 1000-year-old church just a few minutes before it was likely to be consumed by flames. I had a horrible vision of the medieval doors burning in flames as I walked by. But of course no major fire started so probably someone was smoking in bed or had just let their incense burn all the way through to its holder…
After a couple bottles of Russian Baltika beer at the Sovjet Roter Platz, a Russian bar with ample hammers and sickles, I decided to call it a night. I thought about following the ring of medieval walls the next day, but they were pretty much gone now, replaced by a light rail circuit, so they probably wouldn’t be as interesting. And the autobahn wall around the outskirts of the modern city? Not much of a chance of that either, since I didn’t have a rental car.
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