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Cologne
built 238 days ago
With approximately 1 million inhabitants, Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany, and the largest in North Rhine-Westphalia. Over 2.1 million people live in the industrial region, which ... comprises the City of Leverkusen, the Erft District, the Rheinisch-Bergisch District, and the Upper Bergish District. In Cologne, the population density is around 2,380 people per km2, and in the entire region, 840 inhabitants per km2. Just under 20% of the total population of the City of Cologne are foreigners. There are a little over 500,000 households in the city, of which approximately half are single-person households; this trend is increasing.
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The first urban settlement on the grounds of what today is the centre of Cologne was Oppidum Ubiorum, which was founded in 38 BC by the Ubii, a Germanic tribe. Cologne became acknowledged as a city by the Romans in 50 AD by the name of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. Considerable Roman remains can be found in contemporary Cologne, especially near the wharf area, where a notable discovery of a 1900 year old Roman boat was made in late 2007.[2] From 260 to 271 Cologne was the capital of the Gallic Empire under Postumus, Marius and Victorinus. In 310 under Constantine a bridge was built over the Rhine at Cologne.
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Cologne has a reliable, comfortable and fully-integrated public transport set-up consisting of buses, trams, U Bahn and S Bahn. A single trip ticket to take you anywhere in the city will cost you £1.50; a day pass will set you back £4. Tickets can be bought from machines in stations and in trams. They must be date/time stamped on boarding.
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Cologne has, like Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt, a Call A Bike - System. After you sign up to the system, use your credit-card to pay per minute, and you can pick up or drop off one of the silver-red bikes anywhere in the city. See here [14] for details.
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Cologne lost its status as a free city during the French period. According to the Peace Treaty of Lunéville (1801) all the territories of the Holy Roman Empire on the left bank of the Rhine were officially incorporated into the French Republic (which already had occupied Cologne in 1798). Thus, this region later became part of Napoleon's Empire. Cologne was part of the French Département Roer (named after the River Roer, German: Rur) with Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) as its capital. The French modernised public life by introducing the Code Napoleon as civil code and removing the old elites from power, to cite two examples. The Code Napoleon was in use in the German territories on the left bank of the Rhine until the year 1900, when for the first time the German Empire passed a nationwide unique civil code ("Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch").
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In the religious upheavals of the sixteenth century Cologne remained true to Catholic doctrine, thanks chiefly to the activity of the university, where such men as Cochlæus, Ortwin Gratianus, Jacob of Hoogstraeten, and others taught. Under their influence, the city council held fast to Catholic tradition and energetically opposed the new doctrines, which found many adherents among the people and the clergy. Cologne remained a stronghold of the old beliefs, and gave active support to the Counter-Reformation, which found earnest champions in Johannes Gropper, the Jesuits, Saint Peter Canisius, and others. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were a time of decadence for the city; its importance diminished especially after the Thirty Years War (1618-48) in which it was loyal to the emperor and the empire, and was never captured. The university eventually lost its prestige, because through over-caution it opposed the most justifiable reforms; trade was diverted to other channels; only its ecclesiastical glory remained to the city, which was governed by a narrow-minded class of tradesmen and often suffered from the dissensions between council and citizens (in 1679-86 and the bloody troubles caused by Nicholas Guelich). The outbreak of the French Revolution found it a community with but slight power of resistance.
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