Secret treasure rooms discovered in Cologne Cathedral

You can see the excavations with your own eyes

Secret rooms containing many archaeological treasures have been discovered under the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. Excavations under the monumental building of Cologne Cathedral began in 1946. Currently, finds from the times of the Roman Empire have already been discovered, as well as floor plans of the cathedral. The excavations at the cathedral are notable not only for their scale (one of the largest in Germany), but also for the fact that they can be visited on guided tours.

The first archaeological excavations inside Cologne Cathedral began under the direction of Otto Doppelfeld. They continued for decades and continue in separate projects to this day. As a result of this work, premises were created under the cathedral, which currently extend almost under the entire cathedral and cover an area of ​​​​about 4 thousand square meters.

Archaeological research has uncovered floor plans and interior structures of older buildings in the city. In total, about 260 thousand artifacts were found, which testify to the development of the city from the Roman city quarter to the Christian center of Cologne.

“We have excavated a huge area here and worked our way back to the ancient Roman period,” says archaeologist Ruth Stinnesbeck.

Initially, the current team of archaeologists wanted to find out more about the older cathedral building from the 8th and 9th centuries, which only exists through documents. Historical records told them that it once stood on the exact site of Cologne Cathedral. The Frankish king Charlemagne, who later became Holy Roman Emperor, appointed his close friend and advisor Hildebold as the first Archbishop of Cologne around 795. To commemorate this appointment, he built a Romanesque cathedral on the site of the baptistery, which had existed for two centuries. Although it was nowhere near the size of Cologne Cathedral, which is one of the largest churches in the world, the former building was by no means small, confirms Ruth Stinnesbeck.

“Its length was almost 100 meters, which was very important 1,200 years ago – this is two-thirds the size of today’s cathedral,” the archaeologist emphasizes.

Experts discovered not only the Hildebold building, but also much older historical finds from Roman times. Originally, modern Cologne was a colony of wealthy families in the Rhineland called Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. The remains of their luxurious villas, including frescoes and traces of underfloor heating, are now found under the cathedral.

Experts have discovered fragments of the tombstone of a Roman matron from the 4th to 6th centuries, which are associated with the power of the noble Merovingian family, whose graves were discovered under the inner choir in 1959. In addition, archaeologists were able to recover parts of the floor covering and fragments of wall paintings of the Old Carolingian Cathedral, as well as a cornice with palmette decoration, which is one of the best preserved remains of architectural sculpture.

Archaeologists also discovered a large number of workers’ household items, gold rings and coins. Such artifacts will help to narrow down the dating period of the work on laying the foundation of the south tower of the cathedral. Textile finds from clergy graves illustrate funerary rites of the 17th and 18th centuries, while secular finds from the 19th century provide insight into the lives of people living around the time Cologne Cathedral was completed.