Cologne - Heilig Kreuz

Cologne is the fourth-largest city in Germany - and one of the oldest. A Germanic tribe, the Ubii, had a settlement here, this was named by the Romans "Oppidum Ubiorum". In 50 AD, the Romans founded "Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium", the city then became the provincial capital of "Germania Inferior".

In 1221 the Dominicans in Bologna sent monks to Cologne to found a convent here. Some decades later the convent was already able to erect a hall church, that got enlarged by a Gothic choir in 1271. The apse window was donated by Albertus Magnus and can still seen in the cathedral ("Earlier Bible window").

The French King Louis IX. had donated a precious cross relic to Albertus Magnus. This relic is still kept in the church seen here - and gave it the name "Holy Cross".

More than a hundred Dominicans lived in that convent in medieval times. The monastery was finally closed as result of the French Revolution and demolished in 1804, but the displaced Dominicans returned in 1898 back to Cologne.

In 1902 the foundation stone was laid for the new monastery, the church was consecrated two years later. This neo-Gothic building was destroyed during the bombing raids of 1942 and 1945.

After WWII the convent erected the new church "Heilig Kreuz", designed by Cologne architect Hans J. Lohmeyer, that was consecrated in 1952.


www.dominikanerkloster-koeln.de