Romano-Germanic Museum
{{Short description|Archaeological museum in Cologne, Germany}}
{{Redirect|RGM|an airport known colloquially as "RGM"|Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport}}
{{Infobox museum
|name = Romano-Germanic Museum
|native_name = Römisch Germanisches Museum
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|image = Römisch-Germanisches Museum Köln (2514-16).jpg
|imagesize = 250
|caption = Romano-Germanic Museum
|alt = Romano-Germanic Museum
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|established = 1946
New building: 1974
|dissolved =
|type =
|collection = Cologne Roman cultural heritage
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|publictransit = {{rcb|Cologne Stadtbahn|5|inline=route}} {{rcb|Cologne Stadtbahn|16|inline=route}} {{rcb|Cologne Stadtbahn|18|inline=route}} Köln Hbf
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|website = http://www.museenkoeln.de/
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The Roman-Germanic Museum (RGM, in German: Römisch-Germanisches Museum) is an archaeological museum in Cologne, Germany. It has a large collection of Roman artifacts from the Roman settlement of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, on which modern Cologne is built. The museum protects the original site of a Roman town villa, from which a large Dionysus mosaic remains in its original place in the basement, and the related Roman Road just outside. In this respect the museum is an archaeological site.
The museum also has the task of preserving the Roman cultural heritage of Cologne, and therefore houses an extensive collection of Roman glass from funerals and burials and also exercises archaeological supervision over the construction of the Cologne underground.
Most of the museum's collection was housed at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne until 1946. In the front of the museum the former northern town gate of Cologne with the inscription CCAA (for Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium) is on display in the building.
The museum
Image:Dionysosmosaik.JPG mosaic (220-230 AD) in the Römisch-Germanisches Museum Cologne]]The Römisch-Germanisches Museum, which opened in 1974, is near Cologne Cathedral, on the site of a 3rd-century villa. The villa was discovered in 1941 during the construction of an air-raid shelter. On the floor of the main room of the villa is the renowned Dionysus mosaic. Since the mosaic could not be moved easily, the architects Klaus Renner and Heinz Röcke designed the museum around the mosaic. The inner courtyards of the museum mimic the layout of the ancient villa.
Image:Sepulcher of Poblicius Römisch-Germanisches Museum Cologne 2.jpgIn addition to the Dionysus mosaic, which dates from around A.D. 220/230, there is the reconstructed sepulchre of the legionary Poblicius (about A.D. 40). There is also an extensive collection of Roman glassware as well as an array of Roman and medieval jewellery. Many artefacts of everyday life in Roman Cologne, ivory and bone objects, bronzes — including portraits of Roman emperor Augustus and his wife Livia Drusilla —, coins, wall paintings, inscriptions, pottery and architectural fragments round out the displays.
The museum has the world's largest collection of Roman glass vessels from the 1st to 4th centuries,[http://romanhistorybooksandmore.freeservers.com/p_crgglass.htm Irene's Travelogues - Cologne Photos, Romano-Germanic Museum] with more than 4,000 complete collection pieces,[https://www.rheinische-art.de/cms/topics/antike-glaskunst-zerbrechliche-schoenheit-im-roemisch-germanischen-museum.php Zerbrechlicher Luxus], article in the cultural magazine “Rheinische Art” about the 2016 glass exhibition in the Romano-Germanic Museum in Cologne. including a large number of luxury glasses such as figure vessels, snake thread glasses, cut glasses and tricolor diatretes, for example the famous Cologne cage cup from the 4th century, a top piece known among experts. Typical are glass drinking vessels that are decorated with attached glass drops of a different color, the so-called Cologne nubs. The collection, which also includes Franconian glass, continues to grow through excavation finds from the Roman necropolises.[https://www.roemisch-germanisches-museum.de/Zerbrechlicher-Luxus Zerbrechlicher Luxus: Köln – ein Zentrum antiker Glaskunst] (Fragile luxury: Cologne – a center of ancient glass art). Special exhibition in the Romano-Germanic Museum from June 3, 2016 to March 26, 2017. Website of the museum.
On the night of 18 January 2007, Cyclone Kyrill blew a sheet of plywood through the glass front of the museum right onto the Dionysus mosaic. The damage was repaired within a week.
See also
Collections (images)
File:Trading on the Rhine, Romisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne (8115671313).jpg|Trading on the Rhine
File:A large collection of Roman glassware, Romisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne (8119416000).jpg|Collection of Roman glassware
File:Römisch-Germanisches Museum im Belgischen Haus-9554 (cropped).jpg|The Cologne cage cup, 12 cm high, 4th century
File:Exhibition- Fragile Luxury - Cologne a glass-making centre in Antiquity, Romano-Germanic Museum, Cologne (31020965975).jpg|Sandal-shaped glass vessels
File:Spot-Patterned Roman Glassware, Romisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne (8119405459).jpg|spot-patterned Roman glassware, typical for Cologne
File:Römischer Reisewagen.JPG|Replica of a Roman carriage
File:Mosaic floor with geometric patterns, Romisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne (8115598542).jpg|Mosaic floor
File:Wall painting with Dionysian scenes from a luxurious Roman villa excavated to the south of the cathedral, Romisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne (8119154487).jpg|Wall painting with Dionysian scenes
File:RGM-Köln-Fragmente-von-Wandmalereien-einer-römischen-Villa.JPG|Wall painting
File:Tombstone of Longinus Biarta, a calvalryman who died on active service, the cavalry regiment was probably raised by Emperor Sulpicius Galba in 68 A.D., it was stationed near Cologne, Romisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne (8115651602).jpg|Tombstone of calvalryman Longinus Biarta
File:Grave for Titus Flavius Bassus Römisch-Germanisches Museum Cologne - RGM085.jpg|Tomb for the cavalry soldier Flavius Bassus
File:Gravestone for Titus Iulius Tuttius Römisch-Germanisches Museum Cologne - RGM078.jpg|Gravestone for Titus Iulius Tuttius
File:Gravestone for gladiator Aquilus - RömGermMus2018.jpg|Gravestone for gladiator Aquilus (1st half of the 1st century)
File:Köln Bonner Str Grabmal des Caius Aiacius 1-Jh.JPG|Gravestone for the slave trader Caius Aiacius
File:Grabstein des Veteranen Marcus Valerius Celerinus und seiner Gemahlin Marcia Procula.jpg|Tombstone of the veteran Marcus Valerius Celerinus and his wife Marcia Procula
File:RGM068.jpg|Consecration altar of Titus Flavius Constans (Prefect of the Praetorian Guard) in 165 AD.
File:RGM071.jpg|Roman pottery
File:Wart and Bird-shaped lamps dating from 1st century BC to 1st century AD, Romisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne (8119518526).jpg|Oil lamps
File:Oil lamp with couple performing Sex at the Römisch-Germanisches Museum Cologne.jpg|Erotic oil lamp
Books
- Gerta Wolff: The Roman-Germanic Cologne. A Guide to the Roman-Germanic Museum and City of Cologne. J. P. Bachem: Cologne, 2002, {{ISBN|3-7616-1371-7}}
External links
{{Commons category|Römisch-Germanisches Museum}}
- [http://www.museenkoeln.de/roemisch-germanisches-museum/pages/176.aspx Römisch-Germanisches Museum]
- [http://www.colonia3d.de/index.php?lang=en www.colonia3d.de], computer aided animations and renderings of CCAA by Köln International School of Design {{in lang|de|en}}
Sources
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Category:Archaeological museums in Germany
Category:Museums established in 1946