It was not the roosters who went through the Cologne Hahnentor, but the kings after their coronation in Aachen, who then made a beeline for the Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral.
The French troops also marched through the gate to Cologne in 1794.
The Hahnentor with its twin towers was initially part of the medieval city wall from the 13th century (as was the Severinstor) and was even used as a prison for a time, including for the last Cologne witch.
As one of several city gates, the Hahnentor saved Cologne from looting and destruction. Many useful things were thought of: the powder house, the bullet house and even the well so that fires could be put out immediately.
It was not just goods such as grain that came to Cologne through the gate. Citizens and wagons walked or drove through the gate in both directions. At the end of the 19th century, there were sometimes “traffic jams”.
When the city wall was demolished in 1881, the Hahnentor lost its function.
A few years later, a historical museum was built here, which was housed here until the Hahnentor was destroyed in the Second World War.
Since 1988, it has been home to the Cologne City Guard. Here they tell more exciting facts about the history of the Hahnentor.
The name of the gate may be derived from the former forest areas in front of the Cologne city wall, the “Hainen”.
*And now stories about another great man of this city, Konrad Adenauer. We walk about 200-300 m towards the Adenauer memorial. *
