Emmanuel Tresmontant - 2009-01-19

Almost entirely destroyed during the Second World War, Cologne is now one of the most popular cities in Germany, as evidenced by its 100 million visitors each year. The people of Cologne, who were the leading players in its reconstruction, have nursed a tender and exclusive love for it since then.

This could be taken for parochialism (Kölntümelei as they say in the rest of Germany) by outsiders, but the numerous local songs dedicated to the city are striking above all for their humour and good nature: Hey Kölle ! Do bes e Jeföhl – “Ah Cologne! It’s a feeling”, people sing during the carnival… Its legendary tolerance (reflected in expressions such as Jede Jeck es anders – “Everyone’s different”) has, moreover, resulted in its becoming the country’s gay and lesbian capital.

An important business centre, attracting several global companies (such as Ford, Toyota and REWE), Cologne is also renowned for its international trade fairs and shows (such as IMM, the international furniture show), which attract 2.5 million visitors each year.

Cologne is set on the banks of the Rhine, at the intersection between old Roman roads and mediaeval trade routes. As soon as you arrive at Köln HBF station, teeming with people and linked to the Hohenzollern Bridge (Hohenzollernbrücke), the busiest railway bridge in the world (one train every two minutes, day and night alike!), you find yourself opposite the cathedral, whose turrets and steeples face the Rhine.

So drop off your suitcase at your hotel, slip on a sturdy pair of shoes and set off to explore the 4 km2 of the historic city centre.

Here are our suggestions for spending two or three days relaxing in Germany’s fourth biggest city.

 

Like a magnet or a beacon cutting through the mist, the world’s third largest gothic cathedral (after Seville and Milan) holds an irresistible appeal for visitors, at all hours of the day and night.

Everything has been written about this masterpiece, which was miraculously spared by the bombs of 1942 to 1945 and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. Its 7,000m2 façade? The biggest in the world! Its treasure? The relics of the Three Wise Men, brought here in 1164 by archbishop Reinald von Dassel and kept in the largest gold reliquary in the West! Its most controversial restoration? The great stained-glass window by German painter Gerhard Richter, inaugurated in August 2007: this fascinating (and “scandalous”) work covering 113m2, which adorns the south transept, is made up of 11,263 glass squares of 80 different colours, with a layout designed by computer.

In fine weather, don’t hesitate to climb the 509 steps of the south tower, at the top of which hangs the biggest bell in the world (24,000 kg), St Peter’s Bell. As you walk round the outside of the cathedral, you will see at its feet the workshops of the stone cutters, stonemasons and stained-glass-window restorers, who have been working full time here for about ten years (“The safest job in Cologne!” as the inhabitants like to say, with a touch of sarcasm).

To admire the façade of the cathedral, we recommend having a drink at the Café Reichard (a local institution with very classic décor) whose winter garden offers an unhindered view of the monument.

Around the cathedral, Cologne’s most bustling pedestrian streets are Hoe Strasse and Schildergasse. The latter, with 17,000 passers-by per hour, is even considered to be the busiest shopping street in Germany!

Very proud of their city’s Roman origin (founded in 50 AD), the people of Cologne like to visit the foundations, surrounding walls, mosaics and public baths on display in the Governor’s Residence (Das Praetorium), most of which were unearthed when the city was rebuilt in 1947.

As you wander through the old town, you will also be impressed by the twelve Romanesque churches built between the 10th and 13th centuries, whose typically Rhineland architecture is characterised by the trefoil plan of the choir and transept. This profusion of churches earned Cologne the nickname of “Rome of the North” in the Middle Ages.

As for the traditional beer halls, they are one of the city’s attractions, the famous Frü am Dom, for example, very close to the cathedral, where local-born Jacques Offenbach liked to steep himself in the atmosphere.

The smarter Peters Brauhaus stands in a street at right angles to the picturesque Rheinpromenade, a towpath along the Rhine from where you can admire a set of narrow houses with gabled roofs, each of them a different pastel colour.

This pleasant walk, which goes as far as the popular Chocolate Museum (set beside a canal, the Rheinauhafen), also offers a fine view of the Hohenzollern Bridge and the other bank of Cologne, where the immense LVR tower rises up (nicknamed “the Triangle” and renowned for its panoramic terrace).

 

Five hundred metres from the Rhine, be sure to visit FarinaHouse where, in 1709, the famous “Eau de Cologne” was invented, which was to perfume many an illustrious figure such as Louis XV, Louis XVI, Napoleon and, more recently, Marlene Dietrich and Bill Clinton.

This perfume, since then copied throughout the world, was created by Italian immigrant Giovanni Maria Farina (1685-1766): “My perfume brings to mind a fine spring morning after the rain; a composition of orange, lemon, grapefruit, bergamot, flowers and fruits of my homeland…”

Farina House still makes exactly the same Eau de Cologne as in the 18th century: the formula and composition have not changed!

In 1800, Napoleon had all the houses and streets in the city numbered. This is how the Mühlens house in Glockengasse was given the number 4711 which, in 1875, was to become the name of the most important Eau de Cologne company. Head for the gable of this residence: every hour, on the hour, from 9am to 9pm, chimes ring out the Marseillaise!

 

The MuseumLudwig is renowned in Europe for its collection of 20th century art, from German Expressionists to the great Americans (Rothko, Newman, de Kooning) via Russian avant-garde and the Dada movement which, one too often forgets, was embodied in Cologne before the First World War, in the person of Max Ernst.

Cologne’s other must-see museum is the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, also located right at the heart of the city centre.

What marvels there are here, too! A self-portrait by Rembrandt, one of the countless versions of the Grand Canal in Venice by Canaletto, a highly erotic nude depicting one of Louis XV’s English mistresses by François Boucher, the bust of Jean-Jacques Rousseau by the sculptor Houdon, Flemish paintings and, of course, the museum’s showpiece: the famous Railway Bridge painted by Van Gogh during his stay in Arles.

Music lovers should not miss the opportunity to take in an evening concert at the Kölner Philharmonie: one of the three finest concert halls in Germany, along with Berlin and Munich! The interior architecture and acoustics are remarkable.

 

Although dating back to the Middle Ages, it was under the Napoleonic occupation, when it served to gently cock a snook, that the Carnival of Cologne took its current form.

Every year it begins on 11th November at 11.11am precisely. But it is above all on the last Thursday in January that it really gets into its stride, with the “ladies’ carnival” (also nicknamed “ladies’ Thursday”, Weiberfastnacht), when women disguise themselves and go to the Alter Markt, in the old town, to cut off men’s ties, showing them that on this day, they are the ones in charge!

The following Sunday, a mammoth 4mile-long parade brings together hundreds of thousands of people who have come to watch the Prince, the Peasant and the Virgin – the three symbolic figures of the Carnival of Cologne, also called the “three stars” – triumphantly pass by.

 

Where to stay
We recommend the MarriottHotel, located very near the station, a 10-minute walk from the cathedral, in Johannisstrasse.

This brand new hotel, which opened two years ago, is the prototype of grand American style, both modern in its operation and retro in its design, inspired by 1930s Los Angeles. The 282 rooms are all equipped with a TV on which one of the channels shows what is going on in the kitchen…

The 100% French restaurant offers quality dishes served by young women astride old-fashioned bicycles… Modern fitness centre and bio-sauna. Rooms from €109 a night, including breakfast.

 

 

Unter Fettenhennen 19

50667 Köln

 

Heinrick Böll Platz

50667 Köln

Tel: +49-221-221-26165

 

Martinstraße 39

50667 Köln

Tel: 0221-221 21119 / 221 27694

 

Johannisstrasse 76-80

50668 Köln

Tel: +49 221 94 222 0