Cologne

A site on the left bank of the Rhine, West Germany, that was colonized by the Roman general Agrippa in 53 BC. A fortified settlement was established c 38 BC and it became a Roman colony in 50 AD. It was named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, shortened to Colonia. It became the capital of the province of Lower Germania, which was an important commercial center. After 258 AD it was, for a time, the capital of an empire comprising Gaul, Britain, and Spain. In 310, Constantine the Great built a castle and a permanent bridge to it across the Rhine. About 456 it was conquered by the Franks, and it soon became the residence of the kings of the Ripuarian part of the Frankish kingdom. Ceramics and glass were manufactured in Cologne in Roman times. Traces of the Roman period survive including the principal elements of the street plan, town walls and gates, Roman and Gallo-Roman temples, water installations, Rhine port, bridges and fort, pottery and glass factories, and villas and cemeteries. In the 5th century, the Roman town was overrun by the Franks. During the Frankish and Carolingian periods and much of the Middle Ages, Cologne was a major bishopric and a leading commercial and cultural center. Spectacular Frankish royal graves dating to the mid-6th century have been uncovered.

[Roman Colonia Agrippinensis]. City on the left bank of the Rhine, West Germany. In about ad 50 a Roman colonia was founded here by the emperor Claudius at the prompting of his wife Agrippina who, Tacitus tells us, was connected with the area by birth. Formerly, from 38 bc, there had been a modest town, established for the local (and cooperative) tribe of the Ubii by Agrippa. Later (perhaps 5-9 ad) a ceremonial altar to Rome and Augustus (ara Romae et Augusti) had been added, and the area strengthened by a legionary camp. Now the new colonia became the capital of the province of Lower Germania, an important commercial centre and the regional mint. Numerous, if unspectacular, traces of the Roman period survive, including the principal elements of the street plan, town walls and gates, Roman and ‘Gallo-Roman’ temples, water installations, Rhine port, bridges and fort, pottery and glass factories, villas and cemeteries. In the 5th century, the Roman town was overrun by the Franks and their famous leader Clovis was baptized here. Throughout the Frankish and Carolingian periods and during much of the Middle Ages Cologne was a major bishopric and a leading commercial and cultural centre. Cologne suffered enormous devastation in World War II and the destruction provided an opportunity for large-scale archaeological investigation. The impressive Roman praetorium and two early extra-mural martyr churches of St Gereon and St Severin were excavated, but the investigations in and around the cathedral have proved of the greatest interest. These established that the Gothic cathedral overlies a Roman temple and a complex sequence of Merovingian and Carolingian churches. In the course of the excavations, two spectacular Frankish royal graves dating to the mid-6th century were uncovered. The first of these belonged to a woman buried with fine garments, gold belt, fibula and head band, a bucket, glasses and flask of wine. The second was of a small boy laid to rest in the manner of a warrior; he was clothed in finery and lay on a wooden bed, wearing a miniature helmet and surrounded by full-size ceremonial weapons. These inter-nmertfs were placed in a small eastern chapel which was later converted into the ambo of the mid-8th-century church. This first Carolingian church had a ring crypt at its eastern end and an open ambulatory at the west end, both of which contained altars. The west end was embellished by a magnificent west work. This church was soon replaced by a larger building constructed by Bishop Willibert in 870 with two choirs, transepts, and an apse flanked by two round towers with a lower ring crypt. This church remained until 1248, when work on the present Gothic cathedral commenced.