Cologne's great Romanesque churches, the ones the Förderverein keeps

Map of 12 locations in Cologne, Germany

A private association founded in 1981 took on the upkeep of the churches Cologne built between 1000 and 1250, and the repair of the war damage ran on until the 1990s. What the group has in common is older ground underneath: a Roman mausoleum, a temple substructure, a warehouse floor and a swimming pool, with the graves of Plectrude and the Empress Theophanu inside two of them. One of the twelve, St. Maria Lyskirchen, came through the bombing when the others did not.

Places in this collection

  • Groß St. Martin — The church stands on the site of Roman warehouses and, before them, a sports field with a swimming pool whose walls can be seen in the base…
  • St. Ursula — Dated to the early fifth century in the list of the twelve, and known for the Golden Chamber and its Golden Panel, whose enamels are attrib…
  • St. Severin — The list of the twelve puts the origins of this Altstadt-Süd church in the fourth century, among the oldest in the group. The Förderverein…
  • St. Pantaleon — Founded as an abbey in 957 in commemoration of the Greek martyr Pantaleon, and holding the grave of the Empress Theophanu, who died in 991…
  • St. Maria Lyskirchen — The one exception among the twelve: every other church in the group was more or less severely damaged by the bombing of Cologne, and this o…
  • St. Maria im Kapitol — Built on the substructure of a Roman temple, with a foundation date of 690 in the list of the twelve and standing fabric from the eleventh…
  • St. Kunibert — The youngest of the twelve, dated to 1247 in the list of the group, and described by the Förderverein as on the way to Gothic. The associat…
  • St. Gereon — The church began as a large mausoleum in a Roman graveyard and still contains significant ancient Roman masonry; the list of the twelve giv…
  • St. Georg — An eleventh-century foundation at the Waidmarkt, which the Förderverein introduces as more than 950 years on the same spot. It carries the…
  • St. Cäcilien — The Förderverein sums up this ninth-century foundation in Altstadt-Süd as collegiate church, citizens' hospital and museum, the three uses…
  • St. Aposteln — A ninth-century foundation on the Neumarkt that the Förderverein's own pages call the eye-catcher of Romanesque Cologne. Paul VI granted it…
  • St. Andreas — One of the twelve large Romanesque churches that the Förderverein Romanische Kirchen Köln has worked on since the association was founded i…

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