I decided to just spend some time in the city, to have a look around. There are 12 Romanesque style churches dotted around the city, so I knew that my roaming would take me past some of them, which it did. Generally, these churches are quite simple, both inside and out, particularly in comparison to those I visited in Italy and the Iberian peninsula.
According to the medieval legend the name patron of St. Gereon was a Roman officer, who died along with 318 legionaires for his faith. On the martyr’s grave a church with an oval base was built in ancient times, around 350AD: the beginnings of today’s church buildings.
The first mention of a church at the site, dedicated to St. Gereon, appears in 612. However, the building of the choir gallery, apse, and transepts occurred later, beginning under Archbishop Arnold II von Wied in 1151 and ending in 1227. The church was designated a minor basilica on June 25, 1920.
St. Gereon has a highly irregular plan, the nave being covered by a decagonal oval dome, 21.0 m long and 16.9 m wide; it is the largest dome built in the West between the erection of the Hagia Sophia in the 6th century and the Duomo of Florence in the 15th century.
It's pretty difficult to get a decent shot of the dome, but although it's a little "wonky", this photo gives you some idea of it.
Below are a couple of additional shots from inside - the choir, and a quite nice Pieta (based on the one by Michelangelo at St Peter's):
While I was there, I thought that I'd try to get some shots to better show the size of this church - hard to really do it justice, but here's today's attempt:
So, with the temperature dropping, and not much open, I decided to simply head back to the apartment and spend the afternoon relaxing.
It's worth noting that if you are travelling through Germany, it is wise to time your travel-days for Mondays, given that it seems to be the day when tourist sites are shut; similarly, if you are self-catering, it's not a good idea to arrive anywhere on a Sunday, as that's the day that all of the supermarkets are shut. Given I've only got one more stop in Germany (Berlin on Wednesday), that shouldn't be an issue for me.
However, speaking of timing, it will be interesting to see just what is open in Berlin & Copenhagen next weekend, as it's Easter. I have also discovered that one of my days in Amsterdam (Saturday 26th April) is a public holiday - King's Day, so that may also be a day when many things are shut - we'll see.
In the meantime, I still have tomorrow to go - my plan is to try to head out to the Bruhl Palace, as it's not too far on the rail, and looks interesting.