Mikvah (Cologne)

The Jewish community of Köln in the Middle Ages was one of the oldest and most important on German soil. Expression of the bloom time of the community in the Middle Ages was the construction of a synagogue and a mikvah (the ritual bath), a Talmud school, a hospital and a hostel.

During the plague pogroms, however, the large community was extinguished. The mikvah is a last remnant of that time. It was rediscovered only in 1956 during excavations conducted by Otto Doppelfeld. In 1990, a steel and glass pyramid was placed as a skylight over the mikvah to protect it from external climatic conditions.

The medieval mikvah is part of the MiQua. LVR-Jüdisches Museum in the Archäological Quarter Köln, which is currently being built and will be accessible to visitors.