Cologne

Monday, March 25th

Today was still cold but the sun was out and the wind wasn't quite as strong. We had a city walking tour that was very interesting. The guide was very knowledgeable and told us a lot about the very interesting history of Cologne.

Roman Cologne
The first urban settlement on the grounds of modern-day Cologne was Oppidum Ubiorum, founded in 38 BC by the Ubii, a Cisrhenian Germanic tribe. In 50 AD, the Romans founded Colonia on the Rhine and the city became the provincial capital of Germania Inferior in 85 AD. The city was named "Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium" in 50 AD. Considerable Roman remains can be found in present-day Cologne, especially near the wharf area, where a notable discovery of a 1900 year old Roman boat was made in late 2007.

Middle Ages
During the time of the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, the Archbishop of Cologne was one of the seven prince-electors and one of the three ecclesiastical electors. The archbishops had ruled large temporal domains but in 1288 bishop Sigfried II von Westerburg was defeated in the Battle of Worringen and forced into exile in Bonn.
Cologne's location on the river Rhine placed it at the intersection of the major trade routes between east and west and was the basis of Cologne's growth.
Besides its economic and political significance Cologne also became an important centre of medieval pilgrimage, when Cologne's Archbishop Rainald of Dassel gave the relics of the Three Wise Men to Cologne's cathedral in 1164 (after they in fact had been captured from Milan). Besides the three magi Cologne preserves the relics of Saint Ursula and Albertus Magnus.


Relics of the Three Wise Men in the Cologne Cathedral


During the Bombing of Cologne in World War II, Cologne endured 262 air raids by the Western Allies, which caused approximately 20,000 civilian casualties and almost completely wiped out the centre of the city. During the night of 31 May 1942, Cologne was the target of "Operation Millennium", the first 1,000 bomber raid by the Royal Air Force in World War II. 1,046 heavy bombers attacked their target with 1,455 tons of explosives, approximately two-thirds of which were incendiary. This raid lasted about 75 minutes, destroyed 600 acres of built-up area, killed 486 civilians and made 59,000 people homeless. By the end of the war, the population of Cologne had been reduced by 95 percent. This loss was mainly caused by a massive evacuation of the people to more rural areas. The same happened in many other German cities in the last two years of war. By the end of 1945, however, the population had already recovered to approximately 500,000.
By the end of the war, essentially all of Cologne's pre-war Jewish population of 11,000 had been deported or killed by the Nazis. The six synagogues of the city were destroyed.

We started our walk in an area called the "Fish Market"....no fish market now but an area of the Old Town that has been recreated.


Our guide....





St. Martin's Church and Monastery





"Rathaus"...City Hall


Dionysus Mosaic at the Roman Germanic Museum


The magnificent Cologne Cathedral. The only building in the area that was left standing at the end of WWII.








Reflection on column from stained glass window below....


Stained glass windows were removed and stored for safe keeping during WWII.





Rich did not have much luck at the ATM !!!!!


Good lunch with Kolsch beer served chilled and fresh by waiters called Kobes. The Kolsch is carried to the table on a circular tray called a "crown" specially designed for the Kolsch glasses.