Great St. Martin Church, Cologne

Great St. Martin is a Romanesque church whose distinctive tower defines the skyline of Cologne's old town beside the Rhine. Built between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries on the site of Roman-era structures, it belonged to a Benedictine monastery for much of its history. Its crossing tower rises in a cluster of turrets over a trefoil-shaped eastern end, a form typical of the city's great Romanesque churches. Severely damaged in the war, it was rebuilt over decades, and excavations beneath revealed Roman warehouses.