Ubiermonument

The Ubiermonument is a Roman structure in Cologne, and it ties you straight into the city's first chapter. Around 20 or 19 BCE Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa resettles the Ubii, a Germanic tribe, from the Rhine's right bank to the left. Their settlement, the oppidum Ubiorum, rises on a flood-safe hill beside a Rhine island that has since vanished. Out of that ground grows the heart of Cologne.

Soon after, the Romans raise the Ara Ubiorum, an altar for the great province they hope to win across the Rhine. A record from 9 CE has Segimundus, a Germanic priest from Arminius's family, serving at the altar. Two legions, I Germanica and XX Valeria Victrix, camp nearby until about 30 CE. From 13 to 16 CE the site doubles as Germanicus's headquarters, and when Augustus dies his troops try to proclaim him emperor. In 50 CE Agrippina the Younger, born here and wife of Emperor Claudius, persuades him to elevate the town to a colony. The colony takes the name Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. A period of rapid growth follows, and Cologne becomes one of the most important Roman cities north of the Alps. Between about 70 and 90 CE a wall eight metres high and two and a half thick encloses ninety-six hectares. By the second and third centuries twenty thousand people live in the town, capital of the province Germania Inferior.

The monument itself is a piece of Roman Cologne still standing in the modern city. Wheelchair users reach the site without steps or barriers. The story even survives in the city's name: Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium contracts over the centuries into the Köln of today.