Dreikönigenpförtchen
Dreikönigenpförtchen is a small Gothic gate beside St. Maria im Kapitol in Cologne. It links the former churchyard, known as the Lichhof, with Marienplatz and marks the entrance to a medieval immunity district. Beyond this passage, church jurisdiction replaced the city’s law and taxes.
Johannes Hardenrath built the present gate in 1460, replacing a Romanesque predecessor. Above the Lichhof-facing side, sculptures from around 1310 show the Adoration of the Magi. Their original bright colours included a dark blue, star-covered background, while the four figures visible today are copies made in 1981.
The gate’s name connects it with the arrival of the Three Kings’ relics in Cologne in 1164. A lasting legend says Rainald von Dassel brought them through this passage, although historians cannot confirm that detail. Its survival also carries a sharper history: wartime destruction gave way to reconstruction from 1946, while the originals of the medieval sculptures remain in the Museum Schnütgen.
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