Cologne - Ubierring

Cologne is the fourth-largest city in Germany - and one of the oldest. A Germanic tribe, the Ubii, had a settlement here, this was named by the Romans "Oppidum Ubiorum". In 50 AD, the Romans founded "Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium", the city then became the provincial capital of "Germania Inferior".

The Ubierring is the southern end of the Cologne Ring ("Kölner Ringe"), a semi-circular, about 6 km long urban boulevard, that encircles the old town of Cologne on the site of the former medieval city wall.

The development here began late. First buildings were built from 1890 on. A large-air raid in June 1943 destroyed the rings and their houses largely, but most of them got rebuilt after WWII. Along the Ubierring most houses got reconstructed to the old splendor, so today here is the best preserved ensemble of residential buildings (1905-1910) of the Cologne rings. Many of them have Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) facades.

This well restored facade is embellished with two hard working and grim looking "Heinzelmännchen".

Such house gnomes appear in an old Cologe tale. They once did all the work of the citizens during nighttime, so that the people in Cologne could be lazy during the day. According to the legend, this went on until a tailor's wife got so curious to see the gnomes that she scattered peas onto the floor of the workshop, so the gnomes slipped and fell. The "Heinzelmännchen", being infuriated, disappeared and never returned. From that night on, the citizens had to do all their work by themselves.