Great St. Martin Church Audio Guide

Great St. Martin Church: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Great Saint Martin Church

   Welcome to Great Saint Martin Church, known in German as Gross Sankt Martin. You are in the Old Town of Cologne, and this church is one of the places that gives the city its famous silhouette. Its tall crossing tower rises above the surrounding rooftops and stands beside Cologne Cathedral in the skyline. This is one of the twelve Romanesque churches of Cologne, a group of great medieval churches arranged in a rough semicircle around the heart of the city. Over the next few stops, we will look at how the church began, why its architecture looks the way it does, and how one very convincing legend about its origins turned out to be a clever invention. As you look up at the tower, notice how solid it feels. Everything about this building was designed to be powerful, rounded and strong. Let's start with where it all came from.

2. 02

   From Roman Ground to Benedictine Abbey

   The ground beneath you has a long past. This part of Cologne grew from the Roman city of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, and the church is described as resting on remains of a Roman chapel, built on what was then an island in the Rhine. Today it is hard to picture water lapping around this spot, but the Old Town's layout still holds that history. The church's story as a religious community is tied to the Benedictine order. Records tell us that in 989 the church was transformed into a monastery for Benedictine monks from Ireland. Several of them are remembered by name, including Kilian of Cologne, Helias of Cologne, Aaron Scotus and Molanus. During the eleventh century, those Irish residents were gradually replaced by local monks. Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne was not in favor of their presence and worked to remove them. For most of its long history, the church and the Benedictine abbey were inseparable.

3. 03

   The Legend That Was Too Good to Be True

   For centuries, Cologne believed a dramatic founding story. According to the old chronicle, a Scot named Tilmon founded the church in the year 690. The Saxons destroyed it in 778, and a Danish prince named Olger rebuilt it, before the Normans destroyed it again. It reads like an epic, and it was accepted as history until around 1900. Then researchers looked more closely, and the whole chronicle fell apart. It turned out to be a fabrication, written in 1730 by a Benedictine monk named Oliver Legipont. With that, the idea of a Frankish-era foundation lost its footing. What stands in its place is a documented founding in the tenth century by Archbishop Brun of Cologne. A few surviving documents from the time of the building, together with archaeological findings on the site and the study of the building's style and ornament, support this picture. It may be less romantic than Vikings and Saxons, but it has the advantage of being real.

4. 04

   Reading the Romanesque Architecture

   The church you see today was built between 1150 and 1250. One account suggests that a great fire in 1150 destroyed much of Cologne, and that the earlier church may have been lost with it. Whatever the trigger, the result was a grand new building in the style of the late Hohenstaufen era, known as Staufen Romanesque. Look for the heavy pillars, massive walls and round arches over the windows and portals. Romanesque means Roman-like, and those rounded arches are the clue. The big square crossing tower is flanked by four smaller towers, which gives the top of the church a crown-like effect. Now look at the eastern end, where three rounded apses curve around the crossing in a trefoil, or clover-leaf, plan. This is called a triconch. There is also a design principle at work: the forms become more complex as you move from west to east, and from the base of the building up to the highest level of the tower. Inside, you can also find Baroque elements added after restorations in the eighteenth century, so different eras share the same space.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Great Saint Martin Church is easy to enjoy at any pace. A short visit gives you a good impression of the place, and if church architecture is your passion, it rewards a longer stay. It also makes a natural stop on a walk through the Old Town. Before you move on, try an experiment. Step back far enough to see the tower together with the Cathedral, and consider how two very different churches share the same skyline. Then look at the rounded apses and ask yourself which parts feel the most Roman to you. Cologne has 11 other Romanesque churches in that great semicircle around the city center. Seeing how each one handles the same Romanesque language is a good way to keep exploring this city's story.