Bonn Minster, Bonn (must see)

Saints Cassius and Florentius were soldiers of the all-Christian Theban Legion, a Roman legion from Egypt. In 235 AD the legion, en masse, refused to march against Burgundian Christians. Cassius and Florentius were beheaded and their entire legion were put to death. There is a legend that St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, built a shrine there in the 4th century.

The shrine, if there was one, has not survived. There is evidence however, that a Roman temple and necropolis once stood on the site of the basilica. An original memorial hall was replaced by a church in the 6th and 7th centuries. In 1050 this church was demolished and work began on the present Romanesque structure.

Work on the church was completed in the 13th century. By this time Bonn had become the capital of the Electorate and the Archbishopric of Cologne. Cassius and Florentius were declared patron saints of Bonn in 1643.

The five-towered Minster has a Rhineland Romanesque choir and square towers with spires and Lombard bands. There is a galleried apse and a four-bay aisled nave with a three story elevation. The basilica was the inspiration for the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin. Kaiser Wilhelm had studied in Bonn.