Richeza of Lotharingia was a member of the Ezzonen dynasty who became queen of Poland as the wife of Mieszko II Lambert. Her Polish marriage was arranged to strengthen the ties between Mieszko and her uncle Emperor Otto III. She returned to Germany following the deposition of her husband in 1031, either divorcing or separating from him. Upon the death of her brother Duke Otto II of Swabia and the consequent extinction of the male line of her family, Richeza became a nun, worked to preserve the Ezzonen heritage, and funded the restoration of the Abbey of Brauweiler. She has been beatified.
The History of Cologne covers over 2000 years of urban history. In the year 50, Cologne was elevated to a city under Roman law and named "Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium"; since the Frankish rule it is known as Cologne. The city became an influential merchant stronghold in the early Middle Ages due to its location on the Rhine, which allowed the most seasoned Cologne wholesalers to control the flow of goods from northern Italy to England. The archbishops promoted the perception of "Holy Cologne" when they developed the city to the capital of their Electorate of Cologne; to this end, they had both the semicircular city wall and the Gothic cologne cathedral built as a demonstration of power. In the 15th century, Cologne was able to shake off archiepiscopal rule and, as a Free Imperial City, enabled the burgher ruling class to achieve great splendor, visibly documented by the Cologne School of Painting. After the Thirty Years' War, however, the city's development stalled. Only after French occupation when in 1815, Cologne was incorporated into Prussia, the city experienced a steady upswing borne by industrialization. In 1880, the cathedral was completed as a national monument of German imperial unity providing the city with its well-known landmark. Extensive devastation in the Second World War was followed by decades of reconstruction, which only slowly restored Cologne to its emblematic urban panorama on the Rhine through the efforts of urban repair. Today with more than one million inhabitants, Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany. It is primarily marketed as an event city, with Cologne Carnival being perceived as the biggest tourist attraction.
Ezzo, sometimes called Ehrenfried, a member of the Ezzonid dynasty, was Count Palatine of Lotharingia from 1015 until his death. As brother-in-law of Emperor Otto III, father of Queen Richeza of Poland and several other illustrious children, he was one of the most important figures of the Rhenish history of his time.
The archbishop of Cologne governs the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne in western North Rhine-Westphalia. Historically the archbishop ruled a state of the Holy Roman Empire and was ex officio one of the prince-electors, the elector of Cologne, from 1356 to 1801.
Anno II was Archbishop of Cologne from 1056 until his death. From 1063 to 1065 he acted as regent of the Holy Roman Empire for the minor Emperor Henry IV. Anno is venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church.
Michaelsberg Abbey is a former monastery of the Benedictine Order, belonging to the Subiaco Congregation (1064-2011). The monastery is situated on the Michaelsberg, about 40 metres above the town of Siegburg. For this reason it is also often known as Siegburg Abbey.
Arnold of Selenhofen was the archbishop of Mainz from 1153 to his assassination in the Benedictine abbey St. Jakob, where he took shelter from the raging crowd.
The Ezzonids were a dynasty of Lotharingian stock dating back as far as the ninth century. They attained prominence only in the eleventh century, through marriage with the Ottonian dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors. Named after Ezzo, Count Palatine of Lotharingia from 1015 to 1034, they dominated the politics of the middle and lower Rhine and usually represented the royal interests. Under the Salian Emperors, they even briefly held the dukedoms of Swabia, Carinthia, and Bavaria.
Herman II, a member of the Ezzonid dynasty, was Archbishop of Cologne from 1036 until his death. According to historian Henryk Zieliński, Hermann was the most influential of the German metropolitans.
The Great Saint Martin Church is a Romanesque Catholic church in Cologne, Germany. Its foundations rest on remnants of a Roman chapel, built on what was then an island in the Rhine. The church was later transformed into a Benedictine monastery. The current buildings, including a soaring crossing tower that is a landmark of Cologne's Old Town, were erected between 1150-1250. The architecture of its eastern end forms a triconch or trefoil plan, consisting of three apses around the crossing, similar to that at St. Maria im Kapitol. The church was badly damaged in World War II; restoration work was completed in 1985.
Matilda, Countess Palatine of Lotharingia, was a member of the Ottonian dynasty.
The church known as Goslar Cathedral was a collegiate church dedicated to St. Simon and St. Jude in the town of Goslar, Germany. It was built between 1040 and 1050 as part of the Imperial Palace district. The church building was demolished in 1819–1822; today, only the porch of the north portal is preserved. It was a church of Benedictine canons. The term Dom, a German synecdoche used for collegiate churches and cathedrals alike, is often uniformly translated as 'cathedral' into English, even though this collegiate church was never the seat of a bishop.
The Basilica of the Holy Apostles is a Romanesque church in Cologne (Köln), located near Innenstadt's busy Neumarkt (Köln). The former collegiate church is dedicated to the twelve Apostles. It is one of the twelve Romanesque churches built in Cologne in that period.
The Basilica of St. Cunibert also St. Kunibert is the last of Cologne's twelve Romanesque churches to be built. It was consecrated in 1247, one year before work on the Gothic Cologne Cathedral began. It was declared a minor basilica in 1998 by the then Pope John Paul II.
Saalfeld Abbey was an important medieval Benedictine monastery and Imperial Abbey in Saalfeld, Thuringia, Germany. As an imperial abbey, the monastery was under the direct auspices of the Holy Roman Emperor, and enjoyed a degree of sovereignty equivalent to a small micro state within the Empire. The monastery was founded in 1071 and existed until 1526, when it was secularised during the Reformation.
The Altenberger Dom is the former abbey church of Altenberg Abbey which was built from 1259 in Gothic style by Cistercians. Listed as a cultural heritage, it is located in Altenberg, now part of Odenthal in the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Until 1511, the church was the burial site of counts and dukes of Berg and the dukes of Jülich-Berg.
The Vita Annonis Minor is a hagiography of Saint Anno, No. 509 in the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (BHL). The only extant mediaeval manuscript is in the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt under reference Hs. 945.
The Cologne Cathedral quarter is the area immediately surrounding Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. When the Gothic cathedral was built, it was closely surrounded by houses and smaller churches. When the cathedral was completed in 1880 as a national symbol, it was freed from adjacent structures and stood isolated, unhampered by traffic. After the inner city was destroyed in World War II, it was rebuilt, with a pedestrian area connecting to the cathedral. In 1970, the Domplatte was constructed as a large concrete surface without steps around the cathedral, which became the location of major open-air events such as Carnival and pop concerts. The design of the cathedral surroundings has remained a challenge for urban planning.
Werner of Steusslingen was the archbishop of Magdeburg from 1063 until his death. His episcopate was dominated by the Investiture Contest. He was an ally of King Henry IV of Germany until 1073, when he joined the first Saxon revolt. Imprisoned in 1075 and released the following year, he joined the second Saxon revolt in 1077. He was killed at the battle of Mellrichstadt.
