Cologne

My trip to Cologne was full of surprises. Before the visit I thought it's probably just another big city, plus a gigantic Cathedral. It turns out I was mistaken. The Cathedral, the lively art scenes, and the rich history all give the city a very special personality that you can only experience it once you are there.

One element that every great city has, at least in my opinion, is its history, which instills in its people a special sentiment or attachment to the city. It's difficult to talk about Cologne without mentioning its Cathedral-the Köln Dom. Just existing the main train station I was stunned by the sheer size of the world's most gigantic Gothic complex. You might imagine, the building of such a great complex was of no easy path. The Dom has stood in its current place for 800 years since the Middle Ages. It quietly witnessed the rise of Cologne as a medieval trade center, its decline, the terror of bombardment during WWII, and now, the modern world. I was in trance, imagining many historical figures and noble souls that had stood where I was.

Just as Rome was not built in one day, the Dom was actually built over a period of 600 years. In 1164 Archbishop Rainald von Dassel transferred from Milan the bones of the Three Magi to Cologne with a golden box (you can still see it today behind the high altar in the Dom). The famous relics soon drew the faithful from all of Europe and Cologne became one of the most important pilgrimage sites of the Middle Ages. In 1248, the Cathedral Chapter decided to build a new structure suitable for such important relics and pilgrimage purpose. Instead of the traditional German Romanesque style, the chief architect decided to use the "modern" Gothic structure of the French cathedral. The construction has to be stopped in 1560 because of financial difficulty. Only until 1842, under the generosity of Friedrich Wilhelm IV from Prussia the construction resumed, and the original blue print was followed. In 1880 the final stone was placed on top of the southern spire, and the complete Gothic cathedral finally displayed in front of the world.

After looking at the Dom, I decided to go around the city, away from the tourist groups. I strolled down the rocked-paved roads, and every now and then I could see the ruins of city walls from the Roman empire, with the oldest one I could find dated back to 50AC, during the reign of the fourth Roman emperor Claudius. Today the city quarter is consist of small shops and beer gardens, and it was difficult to imagine almost 2000 years ago, on one side of the wall is the civilized Roman world, and the other side the dark forests and in it resided the barbarous Germanic tribes.

Beyond its rich history Cologne was also a center of art in Germany. The Wallraf-Richartz-Museum has a fantastic collection of masterpieces by Rembrandt and Monet (I was very surprised after I browsed through the local travel guide). The Museum Ludwig also contains a rich collection from Picasso. Too bad that I didn't have time to visit these museums, but since Cologne is only 1-2 hours away by train, I'm sure I can still come back if I want.

Of course, Cologne also has its own local brewery, and I couldn't resist the temptation to try some local Koelsch beer.