The 12 Romanesque churches of Cologne, arranged in a semicircle around the city center, are unique. Worldwide. Nowhere else can you find so many Romanesque collegiate and monastic churches in such a condensed area.
Built between 1000 and 1250, with heavy walls, a three-nave basilica, a cruciform layout, round arches, pillars, and squat towers, these 12 culturally and historically significant Romanesque buildings vividly mark the period before the Gothic church construction, exemplified by the Cologne Cathedral. Some of the churches are founded on Roman-era remains, which you can also explore alongside the churches themselves, their original medieval furnishings, and relics—thanks to decades of reconstruction and monument preservation following the destructions of World War II.