Great St Martin Church

Great St Martin Church tickets: which one to buy

The church is free to enter. What costs a small sum is the guided descent into the excavations beneath it, which show Roman warehouses, a swimming pool and the remains of the island the church was built on; those tours run at fixed times, in German and sometimes English, and are the most interesting thing here. Walking tours of the Romanesque churches of Cologne include Great St Martin and cost several times that;

the city has twelve surviving Romanesque churches and a themed walk between them is a genuinely good day. The church is in the old town a few minutes from the cathedral and the Rhine, with no transport cost. A Jerusalem monastic community lives here and sings the offices, which visitors may attend without charge. The Romanesque church association sells a joint booklet covering all twelve churches, available in the shop by the door.

Visiting Great St Martin Church: what to see

The church stands on what was an island in the Rhine in Roman times, and its foundations rest on Roman warehouse walls; a Benedictine abbey was established here around 960 and the present building was raised between 1150 and 1250. The east end is a triconch, three apses clustered around the crossing in the Cologne manner, and above them rises a square crossing tower with four corner turrets that is the signature of the old town skyline from across the river.

The war left it a ruin: the vaults fell, the tower was gutted, and restoration ran from the 1950s to 1985, with the interior finished in a deliberately plain modern manner that sets off the Romanesque stonework. The result is severe and very quiet, which suits the community that now uses it. A modern crypt chapel beneath the choir holds the community's daily prayer, and the acoustics there are extraordinary for such a small space. Above the crossing, the vault rises on four heavy piers, and the tower's interior is closed to visitors but its bells are rung by hand for the community's feasts.

Great St Martin Church opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily outside service times, generally mid-morning to evening with a break at midday. The monastic offices are sung several times a day and visitors are asked to sit at the back rather than walk about during them. The excavation tours run on a published schedule, often only at weekends outside the summer. Cologne's old town is busiest during Carnival in February and the Christmas markets in December.

The interior is plain and photographs poorly; the tower from the Rhine embankment or from the Deutz bridge is the picture. Dress is informal. Allow twenty minutes for the church, an hour with the excavations. The cathedral is five minutes away and the Roman-Germanic museum holds everything found under the old town. The Fischmarkt square outside is where Cologne's old town meets the river and is the best place to sit with the tower above you.