![[City of Cologne/Köln (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)]](../images/d/de-nw-k.gif)
Last modified: 2006-09-23 by jarig bakker
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5:2 image by Stefan Schwoon, 25 Feb 2001
See also:
The German editors of Norie and Hobbs 1971
added two charts (which were not originally in Norie
and Hobbs 1848) with German flags that were important over time. One
of them is no. 24, Köln 1300, [horizontal] red over white.
Peter Hans van der Muijzenberg, 12 Nov 2001
The displayed hanging flag is not the official flag of the city of Cologne.
This hanging flag is only representing the colors of Cologne, red and white.
Using the city colors without the badge is unusual.
The official flage of the city of a cologne is a bicolor, vertical
stripes, red above white, with the badge in the center, ratio 3:5.
Description of the badge: On the top are three crowns, representing
the three holy kings (Kaspar, Melchior and Balthasar) who are buried in
the Cologne cathedral. and the legend about the eleven ermine i don't know
exactly.
Dirk Lesniewsky, 16 Jul 2003
From Ralf Hartemink's website:
"Later (around 1500) the shield was 'filled' with ermine. Officially
there are 11 ermine tails, symbolising the 11.000 virgins of Saint Ursula.
As St. Ursula was a princess of Brittany the virgins were depicted as ermine
tails. The arms of Brittany are a plain shield of ermine. The original
description in the legend of St. Ursula read "XI m. virg." This has to
be translated as 11 martyred virgins, not as 11.000 (M for 1000) virgins..."
Santiago Dotor, 17 Jul 2003
Ursula is said to have been martyred in the 3rd century in Cologne,
long before the adoption of the ermine spots by the Dukes of Brittany.
The (hi)story of St. Ursule is summarized in Encyclopaedia Universalis
as follows:
At the end of the 4th century, Clementius restored in Cologne a basilica in which martyrized virgins had been allegedly buried one century earlier. Clementius placed an inscription to recall his work, but he did not state either the number or the names of the martyrs. In the 9th century, nuns living near the basilica attempted to retrieve the story of the martyrs. They were given the epitaph of a girl called Ursula, who had died at the age of eight. The nuns were told that the martyrs were eleven, and this number was increased to 11,000 because of a misinterpretation of the Roman numbers.
Ursula's legend appeared around 970. Ursula was the daughter of a King
of (Great)-Britain. The son of a pagan King wanted to marry her, which
was accepted by Ursula's father. Ursula was accompanied by ten women, each
of them being escorted by 1,000 virgins. The women crossed the sea and
sailed up the Rhine to Basle. Then they walked to Rome on a pilgrimage.
On their way back down the Rhine, they met Attila, King of the Huns, who
wanted to marry Ursula. She rejected Attila's demand, so the Huns killed
all women with their arrows.
There is not the least parcel of reality in this legend, which was
"confirmed" in 1106, when a lot of human bones were found near Cologne
when digging new ditches. It was indeed an ancient cemetery, but the epitaphs
which were found were misinterpreted by Elisabeth von Schonau. The huge
numbers of alleged relics impressed the Christian world, the sanctuaries
dedicated to the 11,000 virgins flourished and the legend was amplified,
inspiring several wonderful artworks (for instance Carpaccio in Venice).
Ivan Sache, 17 Jul 2003
Compare it with British Virgin Islands story.
Željko Heimer, 17 Jul 2003