Romano-Germanic Museum
The Romano-Germanic Museum in Cologne showcases the archaeological heritage of the city and its surrounding area. It houses finds from more than 100,000 years of settlement history in the Rhineland, from the Paleolithic Age to the early Middle Ages.
During the complete renovation of the main building on Domplatte at Roncalliplatz, a selection of the rich collections that is as high-caliber as it is representative is being exhibited in the Belgian House on Cäcilienstraße.
Visit information
0221 221 28094
roemisch-germanisches-museum@stadt-koeln.de
Cacilienstraße 46
50667 Köln
Website: www.roemisch-germanisches-museum.de
Directions & Transportation
Public transport
Train, S-Bahn (from the airport): "Neumarkt"
Bus, subway, streetcar: "Neumarkt
Parking garages
Cäcilienstraße
At Malzmühle 1, 50676 Cologne
https://www.roemisch-germanisches-museum.de/Ubiermonument
Visits only possible with tour. Limited wheelchair accessibility.
The remains of an originally 12-metre-tall tower that once marked the south-eastern corner of the early Roman city were discovered during construction work at the edge of the old town. The trees for the oak columns that the statue has been mounted on are verified to date from the year 5 CE, which makes the Ubii Monument the oldest stone block structure north of the Alps.
Tip: Single and group tours can be booked via the Museumsdienst Köln: service.museumsdienst@stadt-koeln.de
One would certainly like to settle down where there are Romans, and where there’s wine – the Romans lived in Cologne for half a thousand years. Their traces can still be found today all over the almost 2,000-year-old city. More than 20 million visitors have made a pilgrimage through the “sacred halls” of the museum on the Roncalliplatz since its inauguration in 1974; they have marvelled at the bust of Augustus, the famous cage cup found in 1960 in Braunsfeld, the comfortable Roman carriage, or the monumental tomb of the legion veteran, Poblicius. The museum building has been completely renovated since the beginning of 2019. The objects and museum employees find refuge in the Belgisches Haus on the Cäcilienstraße.
Monument No. 1
Compared to the impact and size of Gothic cathedrals, the stone archway, a part of the former northern gate on the portal of the Hohe Domkirche (Cologne Cathedral), appears as unspectacular as it is invisible. It is reminiscent of one of the most important monuments of Colonia: the Roman city wall. For Otto Doppelfeld, the former director of the RGM, it was simply “Monument No. 1”. It protectively encompassed the ancient city over a length of exactly 3,911.8 meters with at least nine gates and 19 round towers. And it also stood for the power and strength of the Roman Empire. Today, almost 2,000 years later, an entire series of sections are still visible above ground, for example, on the Blaubach, the Rothgerberbach or on the St. Apern-Strasse. However, some of them are in a sorry state. The once proud building of Colonia is overrun with trees and plants or threatened with penetrating water. Thanks to the recently founded “Förderverein Römische Stadtmauer Köln” or “Support Association Roman City Wall Cologne”, a 90 metre-long section in the immediate vicinity of the Cologne City Museum could be saved and restored. This is indeed an important step towards the preservation and care of the monument which is so significant to the history of the city of Cologne. Other monuments will follow suit: The focus currently lies on the Römerturm (Roman tower).
Monument of surprise
In the 1960s, the archaeologists of Cologne kept a close eye on the construction work on a war-damaged house at number 1 Malzmühle. They had a hunch that wasn’t confirmed as yet: The eastern and southern side of the Roman city wall must have met somewhere in this area. But none of the experts had expected the fact that they would come across a preserved tower made of massive stone blocks and measuring more than six (previously probably more than twenty) meters in height. The tower could be dated back to 4/5 AD, so it must have been built long before the stone city wall – at a time when even the Germanic Ubians had settled in the city built by the Romans. It is therefore the oldest surviving stone block structure north of the Alps. The city wall built around 90 AD was later built entirely on top of the tower.
The Ubian monument, a branch of the RGM so to say, can be viewed in bookable group tours or on the first Thursday of the month (KölnTag) from 14:00 to 17:00. The admission is then free.
A place of significance
Construction site fences don’t exactly invite you to linger. But well, the fence around the construction site of the tradition-steeped Dom Hotel, opposite the Römisch-Germanisches Museum, does! The “most beautiful construction fence in Cologne” according to a press report sends interested passersby on an exciting and enlightening journey through time. The focal point of this journey is the history of this special place – the long history of the former “Domhof” (cathedral courtyard), today’s Roncalliplatz (incidentally, not named after a circus, but after Pope John XXIII in 1971, civil name Angelo Roncalli!). It begins with the first settlement of the Platz 7,000 years ago, extends over the city planning by the Romans, the construction of the Cologne Cathedral, up to the present day. The footnotes of history are not missed out in the process – the first ever film recordings in Cologne were created at this spot in 1896: a crowd of people as they were leaving the cathedral. In the spring of 1916, the legendary spy, Mata Hari, scurried across the same pavement to a meeting in the Dom Hotel – with the chief of the secret service, Walter Nicolai. And the American entertainer, Frank Sinatra, performed one of his last concerts here in 1993.
Visit to the heart chamber
The images were seen around the world: When the heads of state and government met in Cologne for the G8 summit in the summer of 1999, the mightiest of the mighty dined on the more than 1,700-year-old Dionysus mosaic (protected by Plexiglas) in the RGM. US President Bill Clinton, French President Jacques Chirac, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the Russian President Boris Yeltsin appeared to be deeply impressed: The colorful proof of Roman craftsmanship and ancient culture was discovered and preserved in 1941 by employees engaged in the preservation and care of archaeological monuments during construction work on an air raid shelter in the Cathedral. The find ultimately turned out to be critical for constructing the RGM on this same spot – in 1974, the museum was opened opposite the Cologne Cathedral. The floor mosaic originally adorned the banquet hall of a private Roman residence, and it shows the god of wine, Dionysus, together with his retinue in an unbridled celebratory mood: people are dancing, drinking, and making music. All of this should symbolize joy, but also peaceful coexistence. Not a bad omen for a meeting with a global political dimension.
Our construction fence will be even more beautiful … The project was possible under the leadership of the Bayerische Versorgungskammer (Bavarian Chamber for Social Benefits and Pensions) (as the owner of the Dom Hotel) and the Cologne City Museum through the “Nachbarschaftshilfe” of various institutes and cultural institutions. Including the NS Documentation Centre, the Cologne Cathedral, the Ludwig Museum and – last, but not least – the RGM.