The city of Cologne has been an important center in northwest Germany since the first century. It is the fourth largest city in Germany, is strategically located in important routes for commerce and transport, and is a center of culture, education and business. Its location on the Rhine River certainly plays a significant part in all of the above. And so it served as the starting point for the river cruise I took with my mother in December to explore Christmas markets along the Rhine River!

Some important claims

Cologne’s Cathedral is the Cathedral of St. Peter though I did not know that until AFTER my trip. It is the tallest two-spired church in the world, and third tallest church overall in the world (it is the second tallest in Europe). This height gives it the largest façade of any church in the world. Its exterior screams “look at me, I’m Gothic” even to the most untrained architecture-amateur.

As reference, the Cathedral’s website provides the following key dimensions of the structure (among other interesting stats):

• Top height: 157.22m (516ft)
• Widest point: 86.25m (283ft)
• Max length: 144.58m (474m)

Given its importance (read further down) and its magnitude, the Cologne Cathedral is Germany’s most visited site (6 million per year), something that surprised me considering the Berlin Wall remnants, the Brandenburg Gate, Dachau, and the Ulm Cathedral (the tallest church in Europe and second in the world).

All of this certainly makes it impressive and worth visiting and earned it being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

Long-awaited completion!

The Cathedral’s foundation stone got laid back in 1248. However, its completion delayed over the centuries; in fact, it sat unfinished and not being worked on for 300+ years! Work resumed in the mid-19th century and was finally completed in 1880.

Though it got started in the 13th century, there has been some form of a church on the site at least since the 6th century. Thankfully, it survived post-revolutionary French destructiveness in this part of Germany though it was closed for worship for a few years thanks to the French.

Relics R Us

Tradition holds that the relics (bones) of the Three Wise Men (or Magi) were brought to Cologne. The Cathedral was designed as magnificent as it is due to the important role it would have: the home of the relics. It also was to serve as an important place of worship for the Holy Roman Emperor which also explains the imposing structure and very detailed ornamentation on the exterior.

But back to the Three Wise Men… their relics had ended up in Milan (mental note to learn more about that part some time…). Around 1164, the relics were transferred to Cologne by an Archbishop who had been granted the relics by Barbarossa (the more-used name for Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I) after he had taken Milan with the support of the Archbishop. This was a great move by the Archbishop as it helped make Cologne one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Europe (Rome and Santiago de Compostela being among others in that category).

Take a look at the Cologne Cathedral!

So with all that as backdrop, take a look at this 2-min video (give or take a few seconds!) to see some of the exterior and interior of the Cathedral. The images used were taken while I visited Cologne’s Christmas markets so you will also get to see how lively the plaza next to the Cathedral was!

(While the pictures themselves are hopefully good, the assemblage may show my level of inexperience at pulling a video together!)

Visiting the Cologne Cathedral

As many active religious buildings of any faith, visiting while services are conducted is either restricted or limited to just those participating in the services. If you do not practice, in this case, the Catholic faith, visiting during a service is OK as long as you are there sitting down like everyone else, not taking photos, and being silent: it is important to respect those services and the faithful who attend them who share their place of worship with you as a visitor. I do think it is beautiful to observe another faith’s services if one is allowed to be there so by all means I encourage you to do that as long as you mind the basic etiquette laid out above.

All that said, the Cathedral’s visiting hours are during daytime and the hours do vary by time of year (summer vs. winter, to be brief) so check their website for precise hours. Be aware that Sundays and religious holidays will have more limited visiting hours as services are being conducted.

The Cologne Cathedral does offer guided tours. A couple of times a day it is offered in English. Special guided tours are available to the rooftop and Treasure chamber (which you can also visit on your own). Oh, and the Cathedral has an app that you can use to explore the church on your own! It is available in Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Finally, if you are up for it, you can climb one of the towers for 6 euros (adults) as of this writing (reduced by half for children and other special categories).