In Cologne’s old town, in close proximity to houses built in the 1970s, is one of the twelve large Romanesque churches in Cologne: Groß St. Martin. With its cloverleaf-shaped east choir and square crossing tower with four corner turrets, it dominates the city panorama on the left bank of the Rhine. Until the 19th century, it was used as the abbey church of a Benedictine monastery. The basilica was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt until 1985. In the crypt of Groß St. Martin there are excavations from Roman times. The name Groß St. Martin goes back to the distinction from the smaller market church of the same name, which was therefore christened Klein St. Martin.
