History of Cologne 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 destroyed in the bombing of Cologne in World War II, so it was of limited importance in post-war West Germany. It had returned to its pre-war
Cologne School of Painting Cologne School of Painting The term Cologne School of Painting was first applied in the 19th century to describe old German paintings generally. It subsequently came to refer more specifically to painters who had their workshops in medieval Cologne and the lower-Rhine region from about 1300 to 1550 (; ). Initially smaller altarpieces such as the Klaren Altar in the Cologne Cathedral from about 1360–70 were created, based on book paintings from around the year 1300 . The mid-15th century is the high-point of this school, when Stefan Lochner (active 1442–1451) created the "Altar of the City Patrons", which is