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| Cologne is the fourth-largest city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburgang and Munich and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than 12 million inhabitants. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, having been founded by the Romans in the year 30 b .c. Cologne was granted the status of a Roman "city" in the year 50. An overview of Cologne shows that roman culture and art is very much predominantly found in the city's culture and heritage.
The Romans brought Christianity to Cologne, and the city very soon became a seat of a bishopric. In the year 785 Charlemagne founded the Archbishopric of Cologne and also bestowed secular powers upon the church dignitaries.
World War I slowed, but did not interrupt, the surge of development in Cologne. In World War II, the city was badly damaged, but it has been reconstructed now and it speaks of all that it has seen and borne!
Cologne has a pleasant climate. It has warm summers and mild winters and an average rainfall of 760 millimeters (30 inches): between 50 and 75 millimeters (about two and three inches. Cologne has cold winters and rainy summers.
Banking and trade are important elements in Cologne's economy since the Middle Ages. Engineering, metalworking, chemicals, and the pharmaceutical industry are also important. Other manufactures include engines, chocolate, and eau de cologne. |
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