Cities & Culture

Romano-Germanic Museum Cologne

This impressive museum takes a vivid look at how Cologne became a city under Roman law and the capital of the Roman province of Lower Germania.

Since its opening in 1974 above the site where the world-famous Dionysus mosaic was found, the Roman Germanic Museum has been one of the crowd-pullers of the Rhine metropolis Cologne. Extensive renovation measures, however, make the closure of the museum unavoidable. Fortunately, the museum can continue to operate in the Belgian House on Neumarkt in Cologne's city centre until the general renovation is completed in 2026.

The architecturally remarkable Belgian House presents the archaeological heritage of the city of Cologne and the surrounding area. It houses finds from more than 100,000 years of Rhenish settlement history, from the Palaeolithic Age to the early Middle Ages.

The exhibition focuses on numerous finds from the Roman period, such as evidence of long-distance trade reaching as far as North Africa, artifacts from local craft production, precision medical cutlery, monuments to local and foreign deities, but also of everyday life in the ancient city. The highlight of the exhibition, however, is undoubtedly the fragile masterpieces of the world's most important antique glass collection, the centrepiece of which is the unique multi-coloured net diatreme.

Explore the surroundings