COLOGNE' the CoIonia Agrippina of the Romans), a city and free port on the left hank of the Rhine, in lat. 50° 56' ii., long. 6° 53' east. Formerly an independent city of the German empire, it is now the capital of Rhenish Prussia. C. is a fortress of the first rank, forming a semicircle, with the Rhine as its chord, and the town of Deutz on the opposite bank as a tilte-du-pont. It is connected with this suburb by a bridge of boats, and a hue iron bridge 1362 ft. in length, for railway and carriage traffic. Pop. '71, 129,233, only 16,746 of whom were Protestants; (1875)135,518. The streets are mostly narrow and crooked. The public buildings are numerous, including a number of educa tional and of charitable institutions. The church of St. Ursula is noted as the place where are preserved the bones of 11,000 virgins, companions of St. "Ursula, who, accord ing to the legend, were slaughtered at C. by the Huns, because they refused to break their vows of chastity. In the "golden chamber" are the coffin of the saint, and the skulls of a few of her most favored maidens incased in silver. The church of St. Gereon, the first portion of which was founded in 1066, boasts of the possession of the bones of St. Gereon, and of the 6,000 Theban martyrs slain during Diocletian's persecu tion. The church of St. Peter is celebrated for the altar-piece of thecrucifixion of St. Peter by Rubens, and that of the 3linorites for containing the tomb of the famous scho lastic, Duns Scotus. The chief object of interest in the city, however, as well as its greatest ornament, is the cathedral, one of the noblest specimens of Gothic architecture in Europe. This cathedral is said to have had its origin in an erection by archbishop Hildebold, during the reign of Charlemagne in 814. Frederic, the red-bearded, bestowed upon it, in 1162, the bones of the three holy kings, which lie took from Milan, and this gift contributed greatly to the increase of its importance. The bones are retained as precious relics to this day; but the old structure was burned in 1248; according to some accounts, the present cathedral was begun in the same year. but others fix the date of its commencement in 1270-75. To whom the design of this noble building is to be ascribed, is uncertain. The choir, the first part completed, was consecrated in 1322. The work was carried on, sometimes more actively, sometimes more slowly, till the era of the reformation, when it was suspended; and during the subsequent centuries, not only was nothing done to advance it, but what had been already executed, was not prop erly kept in repair. In the beginning of the present century, however, attention was directed to its unrivaled beauties, and it has since become the subject of an enthusiasm extending over all Germany, and which has given birth to a multitude of associations for the supply of the necessary funds to repair and complete it according to the original design.
Funds have also been forthcoming from other parts of Europe. On Sept. 4, 1842, the king of Prussia, who had contributed largely to the funds, laid the foundation stone of the transept, since which time great progress has been made. The naves, aisles, and transepts were opened in 1843. The magnificent s. portal was completed in 1859, and the n. has also been finished; and in 1860, the iron central spire was added. With the exception of the towers, the whole was finally completed in Oct., 1303. The body of the church measures 500 ft. in length, and 230 ft. in breadth. The towers, when fin ished, will be upwards of 500 ft. in height. The cost of the restoration is estimated at .4,.750,000.—The situation of the city is extremely favorable for commerce, and it has long possessed a considerable and increasing importance in this respect. Various branches of manufacture are carried on, of which the chief are the making of beet sugar, tobacco, glue, carpets, soap, leather, furniture, pianos, chemicals, and spirits of wine, besides the characteristic manufacture of eau-de-Cologne (q.v.). In 1876, 6,670 vessels and boats traded at the quays of Cologne. C. has extensive and important railway con nections.—The city was founded by the EU, about 37 D. C. , and was at first called Ubio rum opypidum: but a colony being planted here in 50 A.D. by Agrippina, the wife of the emperor Claudius, it received the name of Colonic Agrippina, At the partition of the Frank monarchy in 511, it was included in Austrasia; and by a treaty in 870, was united to the German empire. It entered the league of the Hanse towns in the beginning of the 13th c., and contended with Lubeck for the first rank. It was at a very early period the seat of a bishopric, which was elevated, in the end of the 8th c., into an archbish opric, and the archbishops acquired considerable territories, some of them distinguish ing themselves as politicians and warriors. They took their place amongst the princes and electors of the empire, but were involved in a protracted contest with the citizens of C., who asserted against them the independence of the city, and the archiepiscopal residence was therefore removed to Bonn. The archbishopric was secularized in 1801, when the city also lost its independence, and the congress of Vienna did not attempt to restore to it its former character, but assigned the whole territories to Prussia. The archbishop, therefore, has not now the political rights and power that belonged to his predecessors.