Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/86

 COLOGNE walls and protected by forts. Most of the streets are narrow and crooked. Of the public places the finest are the Heumarkt, Waid, Altmarkt, and Neumarkt. The city is the seat of courts of appeal, and of an archbish- opric founded in the 8th century. The most noted manufacture is that of eau de Cologne, for the production of which there are 24 estab- lishments. Among the other manufactures are silk and cotton goods, machines, tobacco, lace, paper, wax, soap, and musical and optical in- struments. The Rathhaus or town hall has a Gothic tower and a marble porch in the re- naissance style. It contains the Hansa-Saal, in which the Hanseatic merchants held their meetings. Another fine building is the Kauf- haus, also called the Gurzenich, from the per- son who gave the ground upon which it stands. In the hall on the first floor diets of the empire have been held and emperors entertained. It is now used for balls, concerts, &c. The Tem- plars' house is now used for an exchange. The buildings for the government offices, the court of appeals, and the archbishop's palace are all handsome. But the most remarkable building is the cathedral, commenced about 1250, but still unfinished. It is 511 ft. in length, 231 in breadth, and the towers when completed will be 511 ft. high. It is said to be the largest specimen of Gothic architecture in the world. (See CATHEDEAL.) The repair of the building was commenced in 1 830 under King Frederick William III., and its construction was carried forward under Frederick William IV. Large sums were appropriated by the government, and money was also raised by private sub- scription, and by an association called the Dombauverein, with branches throughout Eu- Cologne Cathedral in its present condition. rope. The nave, aisles, and transept were consecrated in 1848, and the whole interior was thrown open in 1863. The portals, after designs by Zwirner, are finished; the one fa- cing toward the south is greatly admired. Cologne has many other beautiful churches, of which those of St. Gereon, St. Peter, St. Cunibert, St. Ursula, and those of the Jesuits and of the Apostles are the finest. It has also a handsome synagogue, in the oriental style, for the construction of which the banker Op- penheim furnished the funds and Zwirner the designs. The Wallraf-Richartz museum was built by Richartz to contain a large collection of paintings bequeathed to the city by Wall- raf. The university of Cologne, famous in the middle ages, no longer exists. There is a pub- lic library of G0,000 volumes. Cologne had its origin in a camp which was pitched upon its site by the Romans in the time of Marcus Agrippa. Afterward the Ubii were trans- ferred to it from the right bank of the Rhine, and it became the Oppidum Ubiorum. Agrip- pina, the daughter of Germanicus and the mother of Nero, a native of this place, induced her husband Claudius to found a colony here in A. D. 51. The town then received the name Colonia Agrippina, which it still retains in part. The foundations of the Roman walls re- main, and may be traced through the heart of the city. Some suppose that traces of the Ro- man descent of its inhabitants may be found in their features and complexion. Down to the time of the French revolution the leading citi- zens were styled patricians, and the two burgo- masters wore the consular toga and were at- tended by lictors. From the beginning of the 13th to nearly the end of the 15th century