The History of the Area

The Rathaus (Town Hall) and its surrounding area is one of the hotspots of Cologne's urban history. The new museum comprises the most important part of the administrative centre of the former Roman province of Lower Germania, the early medieval palace of the Frankish, Merovingian and Carolingian kings and Mayors of the Palace (Hausmeier, the Major-Domos), the original buildings of Cologne's Town Hall with all of its succeeding monuments reaching into the late Middle Ages, as well as nearly the whole area of one of the most significant Jewish quarters in Europe.