Since today is the feast of St Cecilia, we continue our series on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, with the one dedicated to her. This post will be much briefer than any of the others, and is really only being done at all for the sake of the completeness of the series; German Wikipedia says that Mass is now celebrated here only on Christmas and the patronal feast day. (All images from Wikimedia Commons., CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted.)
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| The interior of the church in 1911 |
It was founded as the church of a women’s monastic house in the late 9th century, and prominent enough within the city that it served as the station church for the dawn Mass of Christmas. The current building dates to the twelfth century; in 1474, it passed to a community of Augustinian canonesses, but all of the conventual buildings were destroyed after the dissolution of the religious houses in the early 19th century. For a time, it served as the church of a hospital, but after it was severely damaged in the Second World War, it became the home of part of a museum dedicated to religious art. In its current form, it has neither tower nor transepts; there are some bare remains of fresco in the nave and choir, but they are sadly in very poor condition.
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