Cologne, Germany - Day 2

Wow, what an amazing city Cologne is and much larger than I imagined. As I went around the city on the tour bus today I tried to imagine what it was like before the World Wars. After World War II only 10 percent of all the buildings here remained which meant that so many beautiful structures, many centuries old were gone forever and of course worse than that out of the 700,000 inhabitants of Cologne prior to World War II only about 40,000 remained after. So scary on every possible level when you walk around and think of the devastation even if there is no visual remnants of the destruction left.

From the Cologne tourist web site: http://www.cologne.de/history-of-cologne.html We’re told that the city was founded almost 2000 years ago which is staggering when you think about it and of the 10 percent of remaining buildings there are still some Roman ruins intact including pieces of the walls and towers that surrounded the main city here.  Here is some history from the website: “No city can and should be divided from its history - taking a look at Cologne, the roots can be found almost 2000 years ago when Cologne was still in the hands of the Romans and called "Colonia Claudia Ara Aggrippinensium", making it one of the oldest cities in Germany. The 2000-year long history has had a strong influence on the cathedral city and made it what it is today - a vital and dynamic metropolis with a unique atmosphere. Cologne is one of the oldest large German cities and its name dates back to Roman times. The Romans founded the Ubii village on the Rhine in 50 AD and named it "Colonia".

The imperial governors of Rome resided here and soon the town grew into one of the most important trade and production centres in the Roman Empire north of the Alps. The inhabitants left behind many traces of their culture in the town centre. After the tumult of the transition period, the town came under Franconian rule. In 785, Cologne was made an archbishopric by Charlemagne. The archbishops of Cologne, who were amongst the most powerful feudal lords of their time, were Chancellors for the part of the empire in Italy (11th century) and later electoral princes (14th century). In the Middle Ages, Cologne was the most densely populated and one of the most prosperous towns in the German-speaking region - in particular due to the pilgrims and trade benefits that the newly introduced 'staple right' brought. The role as leading Hansa town and the early development of the trade fair business also led to further influence and prosperity. Impressive city gates and ruins of city walls line the "Ring" and the Museum of the City of Cologne houses other "historical artefacts". In 1288, Cologne citizens assumed political power after the military victory over the archbishop and town rulers, paving the way for the city's later establishment as a free imperial city (1475). In 1388, the citizens of Cologne founded the first city university in Europe, and it is now one of the largest universities in Germany with over 44,000 students. Until the Middle Ages, Cologne was one of the most important trade centres in Europe. However, its excellent economic and political position suffered after the discovery of America, and with the introduction of new economic systems and trading channels, this continued into the 19th century. In 1881 work began to demolish the city walls. This made it possible to extend the city for the first time since the Middle Ages, leading to the development of the ring road and new town. With the Industrial Revolution and the incorporation of large parts of the surrounding area, Cologne became an industrial city."

 

The city is now host to lots of creative and cultural events with Carnival in February being one of the highlights of the whole year and it was said on the tour that they consider their large Gay Pride parade in July to be their second Carnival.

 

I got of the tour bus at the Zoo/Botanical Gardens and took a nice hour long walk through the gardens and so enjoyed being in this gorgeous park free to the public with several ponds and endless plants and flowers of all varieties.  There were lots of people out jogging, strolling or just taking a rest from the city hustle and bustle and I was impressed that on the edges of the gardens were houses and apartment buildings, what a great place to live and wake looking out over this green oasis.

 

I also saw the most adorable squirrel I've ever seen in my life. It was a rust color and had large, thin, pointy ears with fur. At first, from a distance I thought it was a rabbit but once I saw the bushy long tail I knew I was coming up on a squirrel and he saw me as well and eyed me with suspicion as he scratched in the dirt for a nut.

 

I stopped off at the Zoo entrance and saw the iguanas whose habitats behind glass were near there and they were just having a lazy, relaxing day on their designated wood perches as we all gawked at them and some children pressed themselves up against the glass to get a better look. The iguanas didn't move they are probably so used to all these people and just look at us with pity for thinking there is something worth watching. I don't think iguanas are known for doing much of anything but resting on a perch of some sort.

They also had a pen after the main entrance that I could see from the distance with several camels hanging out and being a bit lazy themselves and the donkey pen, which is large and on view for all those passing by, was filled with about seven adorable donkey's also just hanging out and not doing much of anything on this overcast day and one was even napping lying down to one side while another just stood over it looking a little annoyed.

I passed this odd sculpture of a child or cherub on the top of a metal spike coming up from a fountain of some sort.  The child or cherub is smoking a pipe and beating a drum. Interesting.

 

After the tour I took a long 3 hour walk around the city stopping off to see several churches that were mentioned by the guide and sounded really beautiful. I also passed St. Albans which is only the remains of the original church but as I found out in an internet search is "The St. Alban Church was destroyed in the Second World War by bombardments, especially the one of 2 March 1945. The ruins are nowadays the memorial to commemorates the destruction of Cologne in the Second World War. In the ruims is a copy of the famous statue "Mourning Parents" of Käthe Kollwitz, which is located at the German war cemetery Vladslo. There is also a memorial for died prisoners-of-war."  Among them St. Maria in Lyskirchen which is near the river and the newer section of housing and office complexes with their very contemporary architecture including a series of buildings designed to give the viewer a feeling of the massive shipping cranes that used to have their home on that spot many years ago.

 

 

St. Maria in Lyskirchen church is pink, oddly enough on the outside but once inside the darker interior and grey stone walls are a great contrast. The church houses the largest of the nativity scenes in the city and is very charming with a recreation of a Germany street scene. From the internet "St. Maria Lyskirchen is one of twelve Romanesque churches in Cologne, Germany. It is the smallest of the twelve. It was founded in 948 with the present building dating from 1210-1220 with some later additions in the Gothic style. St. Maria Lyskirchen received only minor damage during the wars.[1] It has a sculptured portal of the Romanesque period, and has retained ceiling paintings from the 13th century which are unique in Cologne and show stories of the Old and New Testaments. The church contains the "Schiffermadonna" (Seaman's Madonna), a wooden statue of 1420."

 

I also visited St. Gereon Church which is so beautiful I was awed when I walked in to the ten sided dome with it's balconies, stunning stained glass windows and exquisite inlaid marble designs. It has several chambers including when you first walk in prior to going through the doors to the main church. It's really so worth seeing if you're ever in Cologne. Here is a little info from the internet "

St. Gereon's Basilica (Basilika Sankt Gereon) is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne, Germany, dedicated to Saint Gereon, and designated a minor basilica on June 25, 1920. The first mention of a church at the site, dedicated to St. Gereon, appears in 612. However, the building of the choir gallery, apse, and transepts occurred later, beginning under Archbishop Arnold II von Wied in 1151 and ending in 1227. It is one of twelve great churches in Cologne that were built in the Romanesque style. St. Gereon has a highly irregular plan, the nave being covered by a decagonal oval dome, 21.0 m long and 16.9 m wide, completed in 1227 on the remains of Roman walls, which are still visible. It is the largest dome built in the West between the erection of the Hagia Sophia in the 6th century and the Duomo of Florence in the 15th century. Ernst Seifert built an organ there in 1898. In the 20th century, the architect Andreas Dilthey worked on its interior."

 

And yesterday, although I couldn't find this information online last night, I visited a lovely small church with a very memorable sculpture of what I thought was a women flying (it was hung from the large vaulted ceiling on the right side of the alter. It's a beautiful sculpture and it turns out it's of a Angel as I found reference to it online "The Antonite Church (Antoniterkirche) is a Gothic church in the center of Cologne, one of the most visited churches in the city after the Cathedral. The church was built in 1350 - 1380 and is an outstanding example of art and architecture of its time. The Antonite Church (Antoniterkirche) originally had no baptismal font, but this changed when the church became evangelical community church. Today, it has a Romanesque baptismal font in the south aisle. Another important artwork in the church is "The Floating" - an angel by Ernst Barlach, in the northern aisle."

 

So that's Cologne, very lovely, very easy to walk and certainly worth a visit especially if you love church architecture and at one time in the past there were so many churches in this city it was referred to as Holy Cologne.