The Roman-Germanic Museum (Römisch-Germanisches Museum) is an important archaeological museum in Cologne, Germany. It has a large collection of Roman artifacts from the Roman settlement on which modern Cologne is built. Of particular interest is the large Dionysus Mosaic. Most of the museum's collection was formerly housed at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne until 1946. In the front of the museum the former town gate of Cologne with the inscription CCAA (for Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium) is shown.
Contents |
The museum
The Römisch-Germanisches Museum was finished in 1974 near the Cologne Cathedral at the place of a 3rd century villa. The villa was discovered in 1941 during the construction of an air-raid shelter. In its main room there was the Dionysusmosaic. Since the mosaic could not be moved easily, the architects Klaus Renner and Heinz Röcke planed a museum around the mosaic. The museum's inner courtyards mimick the ancient villa's layout. In 1974 the construction was finished.
Beside the Dionysusmosaic, which was made around 220/230 AD, the museum is in possession of a reconstructed sepulcher of legionnaire Poblicius (about 40AD). There is also the world's largest collection of roman glasses as well as an outstanding collection of roman and medieval jewellery. Further there are a lot of items from the roman everyday life in Cologne, like pieces of architecture, portraits (e. g. of roman imperator Augustus and his wife Livia Drusilla), inscriptions and pottery. These things deliver insight of Cologne, formerly Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium becoming the most important city in western Germany since its foundation.
In the night from 18th to 19th of January 2007, the storm Kyrill damaged the Dionysusmosaic by a wodden plate which flew through the glassfront of the Römisch-Germanisches Museum right onto the mosaic. The damage has been repaired one week later. The museum has the world largest collection of local Roman glass production.[1]
See also
Books
- Gerta Wolff: The Roman-Germanic Cologne. A Guide to the Roman-Germanic Museum and City of Cologne. J. P. Bachem: Cologne, 2002, ISBN 3-7616-1371-7
External links
- German: Römisch-Germanisches Museum Official page (www.museenkoeln.de)
Sources
