A few words about Cologne

Cologne is the fourth-largest german city after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. It is situated at the River Rhine and is the largest city both in the German province of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Area, the latter being one of the largest European metropolitan areas counting almost 12 million inhabitants.
Cologne became a Roman city in 50 A.D. In 310 Constantine built a bridge over the Rhine at the town, and in 785 it became the seat of an archbishop who was one of the seven Electors of the Holy Roman Empire and ruled a large area as a secular lord in the Middle Ages. In 1288, however, he was defeated by the Cologne citizens and repelled to move to Bonn. Cologne's location at the intersection of the river Rhine with one of the major trade routes between the East the and West was the basis of town's growth. It was a member of the Hanseatic League, but became officially an Imperial Free City in 1475. In 1801 all the lands of the Holy Roman Empire on the left bank of the Rhine were incorporated into the French Republic. Thus, this region became later part of Napoleon's Empire. Cologne lost its status as a free city. In 1815, at the Congress of Vienna, the city was made part of the kingdom of Prussia.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Cologne incorporated a number of surrounding towns, and by the time of World War I had grown to approximately 600,000 inhabitants. Industrialization changed the city and spurred its growth. Especially thriving branches were engine building and vehicle construction. By 1939 the population had risen to 772.221. Following the almost entire demolition in the World War II, the German architect and urban planner Rudolf Schwarz undertook a major reconstruction of the town, creating at the same time many new thoroughfares.
In the 1980s and 1990s Cologne's economy prospered due to two factors: the steady growth in the number of media companies, and the permanent improvement of the infrastructure, which made Cologne one of the most easily accessible metropolitan areas in Europe. Today the economic and cultural capital of the Rhineland , Cologne has one of Europe's most vibrant and thriving art scenes. The city counts over 30 museums and hundreds of galleries.
The city's most renowned landmark, however, is the world famous Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral), a seat to a Roman Catholic Archdiocese. The cathedral, commenced in 1248 and abandoned around 1560, was eventually completed in 1880 not only as a religious building but also as a German national monument, celebrating the recently founded German empire and the continuity of the German nation since the middle ages. The cathedral also claims to house the relics of the Three Magi.
The town is also house to twelve other Romanesque Churches, outstanding examples of medieval sacral architecture, the roots of some dating back to Roman times (the most impressing among them, the St. Gereon, originally was a chapel in a Roman graveyard). With the exception of the St. Maria Lyskirchen, all of these churches had been very badly damaged during World War II, but fortunately, thourouguhly reconstructed by 1990.
Well worth visiting is also the Cologne synagogue, which was the centre of spiritual life of the 20 000 Jewish community, which was almost entirely exterminated by the Nazi regime. The synagogue, originally built between 1895 and 1899, was severely damaged during the pogrom in the sinister Crystal Night (November 9, 1938) and finally destroyed during Allied air bombing between 1943 and 1945. It was reconstructed in the 1950s and in 2005 was the stage of a historic event, when the German-born pope Benedict XVI was the second pope ever to visit a synagogue.
On the museum scene, not to be missed is the Fragrance-Museum Farina House, the birthplace of Eau de Cologne, as well as the Römisch-Germanisches Museum (or Romano-Germanic Museum), housing a large collection of Roman artifacts dating from the ancient Roman settlement on which modern Cologne is built. Of particular interest is the large Roman mosaic with scenes from the world of Dionysos (ca 220/230 A.D.) as well as the reconstructed tomb of the legionary Poblicius (ca 40 A.D.) Cologne is also well known for its beer, Kölsch. The same name bares also the local dialect. This has led to the popular joke, that Kölsch is the only language one can drink.