Description of the attraction
The Church of the Holy Apostles is one of the cultural attractions of Cologne. This Romanesque basilica is located within the city limits and is also managed by one of the major foundations for the support of Romanesque churches. It is believed that the very first building on the site of a real basilica appeared in the 9th century, and after another century a monastery was founded here.
Subsequently, the construction of the hall church began, fragments of which can be seen today. For example, the masonry of the outer part of the nave is well preserved, as well as the western arm of the transept and almost the entire central nave. In 1150, a new choir was built in the western part of the church, and then a tower, the height of which reached 67 meters. Thanks to this construction, the basilica became the third largest Romanesque tower in the whole of Europe.
Until the XII century, the building of the church was outside the city, the walls passed just in front of the basilica, but in 1106 the construction of new fortifications and walls began, thanks to which it was within the city limits. In 1150, a significant reconstruction of the building began, which could be due to two reasons. According to the first version of historians, the cause could have been a fire, and according to the second, it is assumed that at this time a construction boom began in the entire city of Cologne, which could have affected the Church of the Holy Apostles.
Unfortunately, practically nothing has survived from the interior of the church and that majestic interior, originally characteristic of the basilica, due to the large number of restoration work and destruction in the entire history of its existence. At present, the inside of the church is almost entirely painted white. It is worth noting that the Church of the Holy Apostles received the status of a Small Basilica only in 1965. And since 2010, it has become the center of one of the Catholic communities in Cologne.
