Ubian Monument - Oldest Part of the Roman City Fortification

In 1965 the south-eastern corner tower of the Roman pre-urban fortification, the so-called Ubian Monument, was discovered at the Muhlenbach. It is Cologne's oldest stone monument and the oldest Roman ashlar building north of the Alps. Its wooden pile foundations date back to 4 AD.

Around the birth of Christ, the Romans established a city with a rectangular street grid, called Oppidum Ubiorum. It was the administrative and cultic centre for the conquered Germanic territories. The city was located within the territory of the Ubians, an allied Germanic tribe that had been settled to the area by the Romans. The basement and the first floor of the mighty, and perhaps, never incomplete square stone building have survived to this day.

After the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, the monument was joined with a provisional wood-soil-fortification that was replaced by a stone wall during constructions of the fortification in the settlement era, in the second half of the first century. The joints of the city wall can still be seen today.

The presentation of Roman stone monuments and wooden parts not directly related to the Ubian Monument will soon be replaced by an exhibition of the life of the Ubians and the Oppidum Ubiorum.