Cologne Old Town & Roman Praetorium

Under the streets of Cologne's old town lies the Praetorium, the palace of the Roman governors of the province of Lower Germania. It was here in 355 AD that the general Silvanus was proclaimed emperor by his troops, and here too that Julian the Apostate held command before his own rise. The vast excavated foundations, walls and a stretch of Roman sewer large enough to walk through survive beneath the medieval Rathaus. Above ground, Cologne's old town preserves twelve great Romanesque churches, the medieval city hall, and remnants of the Roman city wall and its north gate. Though the city was heavily bombed in the war, its layered Roman, medieval and rebuilt fabric makes it one of Germany's oldest continuously inhabited places.