Cologne-Weidenpesch Racecourse Cologne-Weidenpesch Racecourse The Cologne-Weidenpesch Racecourse ("Galopprennbahn Köln-Weidenpesch") is a horse racing track at Weidenpescher Park in Nippes, Cologne. As the only race course in Germany hosting more than one European pattern Group 1 race, Weidenpesch is one of the most prominent tracks in the country. Cologne-Weidenpesch is also one of Germany's oldest horse-racing tracks, having been established as a race course in 1897. The larger of the two grandstands was designed as a cast iron and timber framing structure in 1898 and substantially renovated in 2004. Until recently, the sportsgrounds were also home to Cologne's oldest football club, the VfL
Cologne War 1288. After that, the archbishop and Prince-elector used the smaller cities of Bonn, south of Cologne, and Brühl, south of Cologne, on the Rhine River, as his capital and residence; by 1580, both his residence and the capital were located in Bonn. Although the city of Cologne obtained its status as a free imperial city in 1478, the Archbishop of Cologne retained judicial rights in the city; he acted as a Vogt, or reeve, and reserved the right of blood justice, or "Blutgericht"; only he could impose the so-called blood punishments, which included capital punishments, but also physical punishments that