St. Gereon Basilica, Cologne

Around a ten-minute walk from the Stadtgarten, this is another of Cologne’s 12 Romanesque churches and is considered the most unique.

It is where Egyptian Roman soldier St.Gereon was beheaded for his faith in the third-century, and was built around 380AD in an oval shape. You can still see this initial design in the church today, but the majority of the building dates between the 11th and 13th-centuries, with its decagonal-shaped nave and dome, often compared to El Duomo in Florence. Inside, there are medieval mosaics, murals and ancient relics. In 1920, this was made a Minor Basilica by the Pope.

Kathleen Palnau/Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
Kathleen Palnau/Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
 Raimond Spekking/Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Raimond Spekking/Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas
Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

Opening Hours

Monday:
10:00 - 18:00
Tuesday:
10:00 - 18:00
Wednesday:
10:00 - 18:00
Thursday:
10:00 - 18:00
Friday:
10:00 - 18:00
Saturday:
10:00 - 18:00
Sunday:
10:00 - 18:00
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