Groß St. Martin

Groß St. Martin is one of the most prominent of Cologne's twelve Romanesque churches, its massive crossing tower and four corner turrets forming a landmark silhouette above the Altstadt rooflines for centuries. The church stands on what was once a Roman island in the Rhine — excavations revealed foundations predating the Carolingian-era origins of the site — and the current three-aisled basilica with its trefoil east choir took shape during the 12th and 13th centuries. Severely damaged in World War II, the church stood as a ruin for decades before an extensive reconstruction was completed and the building reopened in 1985. Today it serves as a parish church for the adjacent Martinsviertel, hemmed in by 1970s residential blocks, while from the eastern Rhine bank at dusk its tower-dominated profile remains one of the most recognizable elements of the Cologne skyline.

12th-century Romanesque with the distinctive four-tower crossing — one of Cologne's twelve great Romanesque churches, by the Rhine.