"Cologne, or Köln, is 43 miles by rail from Aix-la-Chapelle. This famous city was originally the chief town of the ancient Ubii, the Oppidum Ubiorum of Tacitus; but it became known as Colonia Agrippina from A. D 51, when Agrippina, who was born here while her father Germanicus held command in the 
district, induced her husband Claudius to send a colony of veteran soldiers to the place. It afterwards became the chief town of Germania Secunda or Inferior. The Roman remains consist of what is called the Pfaffenport, supposed to be the old Porta Claudia, and some fragments of the walls. Many statues, sarcophagi, mosaic pavements, etc., have been found in and about the city.
The Cathedral is the glory of the modern city, and when completed will be the grandest Gothic church in the world. It was begun in 1248, but the work went on slowly, and the choir was not consecrated until 1322. Little more was accomplished after that date, and nothing from the be ginping of the 16th century until our own day. In 1795 the French used the building as a hay magazine, and stole the lead from the roof. In 1816 its restoratlon was begun under the auspices of the King of Prussia, and since then more than £400,000 (or two millions of dollars) has been expended upon it. The entire structure is now completed with the exception of the towers, which are to be more than 500 feet high. The interior, according to Baedeker, is 448 feet long and 49 broad, or 249′ through the transepts; and the choir is 49 feet high. The magnificent south portal (234 feet high), finished in 1859, cost £105,000, or more than half a million dollars. The stained glass in the windows of the north aisle (1508-9) is much admired. It may be compared with the Munich glass in the south aisle, presented by Louis of Bavaria in 1848.
In the choir the carved stalls and the statues on the pedestals attached to the pillars are of the 14th century. The Chapel of the Three Kings contains a gorgeous shrine of the latter part of the 12th century, enclosing the bones of the Magi, brought by the Empress Helena from Constantinople to Milan, and afterwards transferred by Frederick Barbarossa to Cologne. A fee is charged for showing this shrine and the treasury, which contains a silver shrine and other costly relics. There is a separate fee for admission to the choir and choir chapels (open without charge at certain hours); also for the choir gallery, the outer gallery, and central tower. These last should be visited for the views of the interior of the church, and of the city and the surrounding country, which they afford. ¤ "
The article above continues our occasional excerpts from "A Satchel Guide to Europe", a book published in Boston in 1880 for the benefit of aristocratic Americans embarking on the Grand Tour. As always with these excerpts, remember that the writer’s words of advice were written over a century ago, and one or two things may have changed!
The Cathedral, however, today completed (and restored from the brutal damage of two wars since the Satchel Guide writer viewed it), is still quite magnificent. The Cathedral is almost immediately adjacent to the main rail station; if your rail plans take you through Cologne, as many routes do, check the schedules to see if you can stop over for an hour or so. It’s worth it.
