For the feast of St Martin, we continue our series on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, with the church dedicated to him. It is traditionally known as “Great St Martin” to distinguish it from a smaller church also under his patronage, of which there now remains only the belltower. The part of Cologne where it stands, less than 300 feet from the Rhine, was originally an island, separated from the city by a narrow channel which silted up around 200 AD. Modern excavations under the church have brought to light some remains of very ancient Roman buildings, which are thought to have been some kind of exercise facility, or possibly a swimming pool. (All images from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted.)
 |
| The great central tower over the crossing, with two of the three apses that project from it. (by W. Bulach) |
The oldest attestation of a church on the site dates to around the year 960, when it was founded as a house of secular canons. Within a few decades, an archbishop named Everger (985-99) turned it over to a congregation of Irish Benedictines, one of the many such houses on the continent, but over the course of the following century, it was gradually taken over by locals. After a fire destroyed the neighborhood around the church in 1150, a complete rebuilding was begun, and completed roughly a century later. It remained a Benedictine monastery until the “secularization” of 1802, as it is called, the state-organized general suppression of religious houses, and the theft of their properties, throughout the former Holy Roman Empire. At this point, it became a parish, which led to the neglect of the former abbatial buildings, and their eventual demolition.
 |
| This photograph gives a good sense of the building as a whole; note that the nave is quite short in proportion to the central tower. (By Raimond Spekking) |
 |
| Great St Martin is the third tallest historical building in Cologne, but is dwarfed in both length and height by the cathedral; its central tower reaches 246 feet, while those of the cathedral reach 516. (This photo was taken from a hot air balloon. Photo: Eckhard Henkel / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE”) |
In the 1840s, as the great project to finally complete the long-neglected cathedral of Cologne was getting up and running, Great St Martin was also given a major renovation, including the addition of a new sacristy in the Romanesque style, and the reconstruction of one of its towers. An ambitious new pictorial program for the decoration of the interior was planned, which would illustrate the whole of salvation history, from the terrestrial paradise of Genesis in the narthex to the heavenly Jerusalem of the Apocalypse in the apse. Most of this program was in fact realized by 1868, the work of a local painter named Alexius Kleinertz.
Two photos of the church’s interior taken at the very end of the 19th century. (
Public domain.)
Unfortunately, the church was one of the most severely damaged by the many air raids which hit Cologne during the Second World War, and subsequent restorations, which were not completed until 1985, have left the interior very bare.
The mosaics around the altar are very new (1980s), but surprisingly attractive, with eight figures (at the corners and the middle of each side) representing the Beatitudes.
The 13th century baptismal font, moved to the church from Little St Martin when it was demolished.
The cathedral of Cologne possesses relics of the Three Kings, brought from Milan in the 12th century, and so of course, devotion to them is very strong in the city. This polyptych of the Adoration of the Magi, dated to 1530, is one of the few artworks from the church’s earlier history that survives.
A sculptural group of the Crucifixion, made in 1509 by a local artist named Tilman van der Burch.
Two other sculptural works of the same period and workshop: the Man of Sorrows...
and the burial of Christ.
A statue of St Eliphius, a deacon of the church of Rampillon in France, who is said to have been martyred in the days of Julian the Apostate, ca. 362. His relics were donated to the church and to the bishop who founded it by the bishop of Toul, during a council held in Cologne.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
