Severinsbrucke over the Rhine River in Cologne (Germany)

 

"Technology must be connected with ethics and aesthetics"

Fritz Leonhardt,

architect of this Bridge

Deutzer Bridge over the Rhine River in Cologne (Germany)

 

"The bridge has such a crazy attractiveness that you can't resist and you just have to go there once a year,"

Volker Zander, musicien,

about Deutzer Bridge cavity as a music hall

Hohenzollernbrucke spanning the Rhine river in Cologne (Germany)

 Smooth the bricks under her feet

The curl of her hair on the curve of her cheek
Kneeling she looks up at me
The old, dark cathedral towering over the street
All we can smell and all we can see
Every cafe on the long, winding street
Suddenly all of the children will sing
An afternoon song for the sky opening
...

From the song Köln,

by Corey Kilgannon

Hohenzollern Bridge over the Rhine River in Cologne (Germany)

Rheinkohle statt Gold 
Die Fische und die nackten Nymphen 
Sterben im romantischen Wasser aus 
Über die Brücke fahren nur Trauerzüge 
In Särgen wird das letzte Gold geschmuggelt 
Der Osten exportiert seine Frühsonne 
Aurora ist kein Frauenname mehr 
Doch paßt er gut für eine Aktiengesellschaft 
...

In a poem by Yvan Goll

Hohenzollern Bridge over the River Rhine in Cologne (Germany)

Lovers in Cologne

On the Hohenzollern bridge 

Locking their love locks

Forever mine

Throwing the key

Into the Rhine

Love never dies

Fragment of Love Locks lyrics,

Nits band

Hohenzollern Bridge across the Rhine river in Cologne (Germany)

Cologne Cathedral, constructed over more than six centuries, has an exceptional intrinsic value and contains artistic masterpieces. It is a powerful testimony to the strength and persistence of Christian belief in medieval and modern Europe.

Cologne Cathedral described as

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Old Hohenzollern Bridge over the Rhine River in Cologne (Germany)

Guerra a la guerra por la guerra. Vente.
Vuelve la espalda. El mar. Abre la boca.
Contra una mina una sirena choca
Y un arcángel se hunde, indiferente.
Tiempo de fuego. Adiós. Urgentemente.
Cierra los ojos. Es el monte. Toca.
Saltan las cumbres salpicando roca
Y un arcángel se hunde, indiferente.
¿Dinamita a la luna también? Vamos.
Muerte a la muerte por la muerte: guerra.
En verdad, piensa el toro, el mundo es bello
Encendidos están, amor, los ramos.
Abre la boca. (El mar. El monte.) Cierra
Los ojos y desátate el cabello.

Rafael Alberti

Hohenzollern Bridge across the Rhine river in Cologne (Germany)

Desde el arco ojival de la portada

Hasta en la flecha que en lo azul palpita

cada cosa en su fabrica suscita

el ansia de emprender otra cruzada

Mole de encaje y de ilusion

cascada que baja de la boveda infinita

surtidor hasta Dios se precipita

escala de Jacob, fuerza encantada

Tiene tanto a la vez de piedra y nube,

su pesadumbre formidable sube

en la luz con tan ágil movimiento,

que se piensa delante a su fachada

en alguna cantera evaporada,

o en alguna parálisis del viento.

To the Cologne Cathedral

Juan Lozano y Lozano

Zoobrucke over the Rhine in Cologne (Germany)

"Beneath me flows the Rhine, and, like the stream of Time, it flows amid the ruins of the Past"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Severin Bridge over the Rhine River in Cologne (Germany)

Instead of that sermon Shakespeare stated,
        Since the day its choir,
        Which all admire,
    By Cologne’s Archbishop was consecrated.
        Ah! THAT was a day,
        One well might say,
To be marked with the largest, whitest stone
To be found in the towers of all Cologne!
        Along the Rhine,
        From old Rheinstein,

The people flowed like their own good win.

...

Excerpt from A Legend of Cologne

Bret Harte

LONGEST CABLE-STAYED BRIDGE IN THE WORLD FROM 1959 TO 1069

Swing bridge over the Rhine River in Cologne (Germany)

Ô Rhin, sais-tu pourquoi les amants insensés,
Abandonnant leur âme aux tendres rêveries,
Par tes bois verdoyants, par tes larges prairies
S'en vont par leur folie incessamment poussés ?

Sais-tu pourquoi jamais les tristes railleries,
Les exemples d'hier, ni ceux des temps passés,
De tes monts adorés, de tes rives chéries,
Ne les ont fait descendre et ne les ont chassés ?

Alfred de Musset