Cologne City Hall Audio Guide

Cologne City Hall: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Cologne City Hall

   Welcome to Cologne City Hall, known in German as the Kölner Rathaus. You are in the old city center, just off the shopping street Hohe Straße. The building sits between two squares: Rathausplatz on one side and Alter Markt on the other. This is not one building but a whole complex built up over the centuries. It has a fourteenth century historic town hall, a fifteenth century Gothic tower, a sixteenth century Renaissance loggia and cloister called the Löwenhof, and a twentieth century modern atrium called the Piazzetta. It is Germany's oldest city hall, with a documented history of some 900 years. Over the next few minutes we will dig down to Roman foundations, look up at a tower full of stone figures, listen for a carillon of bronze bells, and see how a bombed-out ruin became a working seat of city government again. Let's start with the ground beneath your feet.

2. 02

   From Roman Governor to Free Citizens

   Long before there was a city council, this spot belonged to Rome. The City Hall stands on the site of the Roman Praetorium, which until the year 475 was the seat of the Roman governor of Germania Inferior. After Rome's authority faded, Merovingian kings used the building as a royal residence until 754. An earthquake in the late eighth century finally destroyed it. In 795, under Hildebold of Cologne, the city was raised from a bishop's seat to an archbishop's seat. The area around the old praetorium became home to wealthy patrician merchants and to Cologne's Jewish community, many of whom lived under immunity granted by the king. Cologne was one of Europe's busiest trading ports and the largest city in Germany, and its society slowly shifted from a feudal order to one of free citizens. Documents from 1135 and 1152 mention a house in which citizens convene. That is the first council hall, standing where the town hall stands today. Historians point to the council of that era as a striking example of self-won municipal freedom in a medieval city.

3. 03

   Guilds, Burgomasters and a New Constitution

   Governing a city this wealthy was never simple. On the fourteenth of September 1396, the constitution of Cologne came into effect, and the Gaffeln and Zünfte, the city's gaffs and guilds, took power in the council. Merchants and craftspeople now had a real voice in how Cologne was run. Following the tradition of Roman consuls, the council was headed by two elected burgomasters, or mayors. That arrangement lasted until 1797, when the council and its constitution were replaced under Napoleonic rule and the French civil code. Since 1815, the city council has been led by a single Oberbürgermeister, a Lord Mayor. The story of the neighborhood also has a darker chapter. The Jewish community that lived near the old praetorium suffered a pogrom, and the history of this site includes that sobering memory. It is a reminder that even a prosperous and influential city carried deep injustices alongside its civic achievements.

4. 04

   A Tower, a Loggia and Many Stone Figures

   Now look at the architecture, because each period left its own layer. The Gothic tower was added between 1407 and 1414. The Renaissance loggia followed between 1569 and 1573, and its arcaded style contrasts sharply with the Gothic parts of the complex. The Spanish building, standing on Rathausplatz but not directly connected to the main structure, dates from 1660 and 1661. The tower is crowded with sculptures. Figures of Cologne personalities such as Johann Maria Farina, the founder of the world's oldest perfume factory, appear alongside Wallraf, Mevissen, Adenauer, Ostermann and Haubrich across three floors. Patron saints watch over the city from the top floor, among them Peter, the Three Wise Men, Gereon, Ursula, Severin and Albertus Magnus. Look for the Platzjabbeck, a figure that has adorned the tower since the fifteenth century. Some of the sculptures are witty or thought-provoking. And if you hear bells, listen closely. Between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. every day, a carillon of 48 bronze bells plays from the tower. The guilds donated them in 1958, as successors to the medieval guilds, after the earlier bells were destroyed in the Second World War. Konrad Adenauer donated one bell himself.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   The bombing of the Second World War destroyed the entire city hall except for the front portion and part of the tower. The rest was rebuilt in a modern style, which is why old and new now sit side by side. The result is a complex that holds Roman memory, a medieval council, Renaissance elegance and a post-war atrium in one place. That modern entrance hall, the Piazzetta, connects the historical sections with the Alter Markt, the new administrative wing with its glass-roofed inner courtyard, and the mayor's offices. Behind the wall with the arched windows is the Hansa Saal. Today the building is still a working center of city government, and couples can even exchange vows in the tower cellar or in the Spanish building. Before you move on, walk around the building and notice where one century ends and the next begins. Which figure on the tower can you find? Which line of stone or glass tells you that you have crossed from the medieval city into the modern one?