St. Nicholas and the three little children

Brauweiler, now a district of Pulheim, borders Cologne to the east, but is still largely surrounded by agriculture. In the "Fundatio monasterii Brunwilarensis", a source of the late 11th century, the construction of a wooden chapel in which relics of Saint Medardus from Soissons were kept is mentioned. Count-Palatine Hermann I had a new chapel built of stone and rebuilt a destroyed manor nearby. Around 991, the wedding between Count Palatine Ezzo-Ehrenfried and Mathilde, a daughter of Emperor Otto II and Theophanu, took place here. On this occasion, Ezzo transferred the estate. During a pilgrimage to Rome before 1024, Ezzo and Mathilde received relics of St. Nicholas and a cross from the Pope for the foundation of a monastery. The abbot Poppo of Stablo was entrusted with the foundation of the monastery. In 1024 seven monks arrived at Brauweiler and began the construction of the monastery. The church and monastery were consecrated in 1028. From 1065 until his death in 1091, Wolfhelm of Brauweiler, later Saint Wolfhelm, was abbot here. A period of prosperity was brought about by the introduction of the Bursfeld Reform in 1467. The abbey last built the prelate's wing from 1780 to 1785. After the French occupation of the Left Bank of the Rhine, the abbey was dissolved in 1802 in the course of secularization. The abbey church became a parish church, while the buildings were used as a labor institution from 1815 by the Prussian government. Since 1920, the "Bewahrungshaus" and "Zellengebäude" were rented to the Cologne justice administration. These two buildings served as a concentration camp for one year starting in 1933, then as a prison for the Cologne Gestapo until 1945. Over 1000 people were imprisoned here by the Nazis during the entire period. St. Nikolaus, the former abbey church, was built between 1136 and 1240. The impressive westwerk is from around 1140. Above the archaic Romanesque tympanum stands St. Nicholas. At his feet are three little children, who had been lured by a malicious butcher into his house, where he killed them, placing their remains in a barrel to cure, planning to sell them off as ham. Nicholas saw through the butcher's lies and resurrected the pickled children.

Salamanca is a "real city" with a population of more than 140.000 inhabitants. Under Roman and Visigothic rule called “Helmantica,” the city developed into an important trading center. In the 8th century, Salamanca was taken by the Moors, but in 939 it became Christian again as a result of the Battle of Simancas. Salamanca became a border town to the Islamic south of the Iberian Peninsula and was subsequently exposed to constant attacks, which resulted in depopulation and only after the conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI. León's rule ended in 1085. In 1102 the period of repopulation began. The Christian new settlers rose against Castile-León in 1162 and called on Portugal for help in 1163, which occupied Salamanca for two years. Salamanca experienced its heyday in the 16th century. In 1524, the construction of the church and monastery of San Esteban began and at the same time, the new cathedral was built. The "New Cathedral" ("Catedral Nueva") is, together with the "Old Cathedral" ("Catedral Vieja"), one of the two cathedrals of Salamanca. It is the seat of the Diocese of Salamanca. Following the Reconquista, the Salamanca grew in population and prosperity. The old Romanesque cathedral no longer met the size and representational demands of the bishop, university, and city. In 1513, construction began on the ew bishop's church, which was designed to have enormous dimensions. The northern transept arm of the old church was demolished for this purpose. The ceremonial consecration of the new cathedral did not take place until 1733 after a long, eventful construction history. During the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the central dome and the bell tower collapsed. The reconstruction was completed by 1762. St. Nicholas and the three pickled children A legend tells that during a famine, a vicious butcher lured three small children into his house, where he killed them and put their remains in a barrel to sell them as hams. St Nicholas saw through the butcher's lies and resurrected the pickled children.

A town may have existed here since ancient times, it was seized by Scipio Africanus away from Carthage by 207 BC, in the context of the Second Punic War. Following the Umayyad conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the city became the head of an important territory with some similarities to the current province. Jaén was conquered by the Almoravids in 1091. Taken in 1159 by Ibn Mardanīš (aka "Rey Lobo"), who was opposed to the spread of the Almohad Empire, it fell back to the Almohads in 1169. In 1225, Fernando III of Castile unsuccessfully laid siege to Jaén. The city was besieged again in 1230 by Fernand who lifted the siege after the news of the death of his father, Alfonso IX of León. In 1246 Muhammad I of Granada surrendered to Fernndo. Following the conquest the Diocese of Baeza was moved to Jaén. During the Spanish Civil War, the city remained loyal to the Second Spanish Republic and was therefore bombed by the infamous German Condor Legion flying squadron on April 1, 1937. Current estimates suggest that 159 residents were killed and several hundred injured in the bombing. The site was once occupied by a mosque which was consecrated as a church after Fernando III of Castile took Jaén in 1246. It was damaged and rebuilt on numerous occasions until the 16th century when the current edifice began construction. The Jaén Cathedral is an important example of the Spanish Renaissance, though the façade is built in the Baroque style. Andrés de Vandelvira is probably the most prominent of the involved architects. Consolidation works were necessary after the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. On display (every Friday) is a copy of the "Veil of Veronica" which probably dates from the 14th century A detail of the choir stalls. Saint Nicholas and the three pickled children. He saved them!

Lamego became Catholic when the Visigothic king Rekared I converted to Catholicism. During the reign of Sisebuto (612-621), the Visigothic monarch coined currency from Lamego, indicating the importance of the region to commerce and culture. The region alternated between Christian and Muslim hands during the early Reconquista Period. The city was first conquered by Alfonso I of Asturias in 741and repopulated in 868 by Alfonso III. It fell into Islamic hands briefly again during the late 10th century, until Ferdinand I of León and Castile conquered the region definitively in 1057. The most significant moment in the town's history was in 1139, when nobles declared Afonso Henriques to be Portugal's first king. The diocese of Lamego may have been founded around 570; in any case, as bishop's names are known from this period. After the reconquest of the north of what is now Portugal by Ferdinand I of León in 1057, it continued to exist de facto, but it was not until four years after Portugal's independence (1139) that the bishopric was refounded by King Alfonso I in 1143. The bell tower of the current cathedral dates back to this time, but it was fundamentally altered in the 16th century in the late Gothic/Renaissance style. In 1881, Pope Leo XIII attached the bishopric of Lamego to the archbishopric of Braga. St. Nicholas and the three little children, who had been lured by a malicious butcher into his house, where he killed them, placing their remains in a barrel to cure, planning to sell them off as ham. Nicholas saw through the butcher's lies and resurrected the pickled children.