Story
The story of Cologne Cathedral
Step out of Cologne's main station and there it is, filling the sky. At 157 metres, Cologne Cathedral is the tallest twin-spired church in the world, and its two towers give it the largest facade of any church.
It is Germany's most visited landmark, with an average of 6 million visitors a year, and a World Heritage Site since 1996. Building began in 1248. The medieval builders planned something grand: a home for the reliquary of the Three Kings, worthy of the Holy Roman Emperor. But around 1560 work stopped, and for almost three centuries the cathedral stood unfinished.
Attempts to complete it began around 1814, but proper funding only came in the 1840s, and it was finally finished to the original medieval plan in 1880. Christians gathered on this hill long before: Maternus, the first bishop of Cologne, served here around 313. Go inside and find the shrine of the Three Kings – the reason this cathedral exists.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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More highlights in Cologne
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- Romano-Germanic MuseumThe Romano-Germanic Museum is an archaeological museum in Cologne, Germany. It has a large collection of Roman artifacts from the Roman settlement of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, on which modern Cologne is built.
- Alter MarktThe Alter Markt is a historic square in Cologne's Altstadt-Nord district.
- SeverinstorburgThe Severinstorburg is one of the four surviving gate castles of Cologne's medieval city wall.
- Hohenzollern BridgeThe Hohenzollern Bridge is a bridge crossing the river Rhine in the German city of Cologne. It crosses the Rhine at kilometre 688.5. Originally, the bridge was both a railway and road bridge.
- Schokoladenmuseum KölnThe Schokoladenmuseum Köln (Imhoff Chocolate Museum) was opened by Hans Imhoff on 31 October 1993. It is situated in the Cologne quarter of Altstadt-Süd on the Rheinauhafen peninsula.