Hohe Strasse

Hohe Strasse follows the exact route of the ancient Cardo maxima, the north-south spine of the Roman settlement Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, making it one of the oldest continuously used streets in Germany at nearly 2,000 years. Roman foundations still run beneath the paving stones of the modern pedestrian zone, and construction works periodically unearth fragments of the ancient city fabric. The street was largely destroyed in World War II and rebuilt in the 1950s as a car-free shopping zone — one of the first pedestrian precincts in postwar Germany. Today the streetscape is dominated by international chain retailers with almost no visible trace of its layered past. The only surviving clue to its ancient origins is the building line itself, unchanged since Roman times.

Pedestrian street since the 12th century, from Schildergasse to the cathedral — the city's densest retail strip.