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
William of Cologne kind may be found in museums and various churches in Cologne, Munich, Nuremberg, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, and there is a plaque to him in the Walhalla temple. 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