History of Cologne City Archive, which was the largest in Germany. Its building collapsed during the construction of an extension to the underground railway system on 3 March 2009. History of Cologne The German city of Cologne was founded in the 1st century as the Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. It was taken by the Franks in the 5th century and became an important city of Medieval Germany, the seat of an Archbishop and a Prince-Elector. As the Free Imperial City of Cologne it was one of the centers of the Hanseatic League in the early modern period. Most of the city was
William of Cologne William of Cologne William of Cologne ("Wilhelm von Köln" or "Meister Wilhelm") was a medieval German painter active in Cologne and recorded in city charters between 1370 and 1390. He is regarded as the foremost artist of the Cologne School. No paintings can be attributed securely to him by him, though his name is used as a collective term for a series of altarpieces from late in the fourteenth century, whose main qualities are ardent piety and delicate grace, particularly in the characteristics of the female figures. Their formal aspects, however, remain within the prevailing Gothic style. Images of this