Museum Ludwig and Wallraf-Richartz Museum

Agrippina, an Ancient Roman woman, last wife of the Emperor Claudius (some think she killed him) and mother of Emperor Nero (who killed her), was born in Köln. The area was named for her, something like the Colony or Colonia of Agrippina. The name was shortened to Colonia or Cologne in French or Köln in German.

So the city has a very long history.

It’s location on the Rhine made it part of a major trade route throughout its history. It was heavily bombed in WWII and almost the entire historic centre was destroyed. Only parts, mainly churches, were rebuilt after 1945.

Museum Ludwig is just outside our hotel.

The Museum holds 20th century works and is particularly strong in Picasso. I was interested in the Gerhard Richters in the collection. Richter’s 90th birthday is in 2022 so the Museum is featuring different works over the year, but not showing all their holdings at one time. Here’s some of what they are showing.

The Museum’s floor space is huge.

The displays are on three floors. Some other works I liked.

It also has good views out the windows.

We wandered a bit of the historic centre.

The other museum I wanted to see was the Wallraf-Richartz Museum which started with a collection donated to the City in the 19th century. It grew over the years to the point where the Ludwig Museum was created as a separate museum. The collection has occupied different buildings over the years. The current one opened in 2001.

We had a bit of lunch at the museum cafe.

The Museum has a good Baroque collection as well as Medieval art, which we did not visit.

Near the Museum is Farina, a perfume shop. The first Farina invented a type of perfume that he called Eau de Cologne, which came to be the name for all lighter styles of perfume.