Cologne

Photo 1: Typical restored street scape. Note the narrow houses.

Photo 2: Cathedral, side view.

Photo 3: Cathedral entry.

Photos 4 and 5: Note the intricacy of the sculptures.

Photo 6: One of the original 12th century windows.

Photo 7: The choir stalls which seat up to 140 choristers.

On Wednesday we toured the centre of Cologne. The city dates from the third century but as it was 90 percent destroyed in World War Two there is very little old that has not had to be painstakingly restored. However an unexpected positive arising from the bomb damage was Roman ruins going back to the first century. We saw a beautiful Roman mosaic floor dating from 150 uncovered next to the Cathedral.

We visited Fish Market square and learned the origin of the old term ‘fishwife’. In medieval times it was the women who sold the fish in the market and they would have to yell very loudly to get business. Of course no sensible man would use that term these days as black eyes are painful and very unattractive.

The people of Cologne seem to have a good sense of humour in bygone days. Under the clock on the Town Hall is the sculpture of a man from the middle ages who sticks his tongue out every time the clock chimes. On the opposite side of the square is the sculpture of a women mooning the plaza. It is a reminder of how people used to go to the loo back then. Three cheers for modern sewerage J.

Our last stop was Cologne Cathedral which, amazingly, suffered minimal damage during the bombing. After the war the bomber pilots revealed that they had used the Cathedral spires to line up their bombing runs but had done their best to avoid hitting the Cathedral. Given the usually terrible inaccuracy of such bombing they did remarkably well.

The Cathedral is magnificent. It is a huge work of gothic architecture which took 632 years to complete and was eventually finished in almost complete harmony with the original plans. The exterior has suffered a lot from air pollution over many years, being right next to the railway station which serviced steam trains for 100 years or more. However there is an ongoing cleaning program which we are assured will never end because cleaning sandstone is a very delicate operation. 

We’ll let the photos give you an idea of what the interior is like as words fail us.