Historical Archive of the City of Cologne photographs of 284 charters from the Cologne archive. Directors of the Cologne municipal archive: Historical Archive of the City of Cologne The Historical Archive of the City of Cologne (, or for short) is the municipal archive of Cologne, Germany. It ranks among the largest communal archives in Europe. A municipal archive has existed in Cologne since the Middle Ages. The oldest inventory of charters in the archive is dated 1408/1409. The oldest document kept in the archive is a charter dated AD 922. The archive contains official records and private documents from all ages of Cologne history, as well
Electorate of Cologne confused with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne, which was larger and included suffragant bishoprics such as Liège and Münster over which the Elector-Archbishop exercised only spiritual authority (see map below). Cologne was the ancient Roman city of Colonia Agrippina in the province of Germania Inferior, and has been a bishop's see since Roman times. In 953, the archbishops of Cologne first gained noteworthy secular power, when Bishop Bruno was appointed as duke by his brother Emperor Otto I. To weaken the secular nobility, who threatened his power, Otto endowed Bruno and his successors in the bishop's see with the