The council tower is decorated with 124 council figures. The facade of the first floor is adorned with rulers and persons similar to rulers. From the first to the third floor you can find personalities who were important for the history of Cologne. On the top floor of the tower, the Magi Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar watch over you. You can get especially close to them on our roof terrace. Discover this Cologne sight directly from the Legend Hotel.

In the roof of the tower you will find the famous Glockenspiel. The 48 bronze bells sound only four times a day and enchant the surroundings of the town hall with a total of 24 changing pieces of music.

From your rooms in the Legend Hotel you will enjoy, among other things, a special view of this historic city hall tower, its figures, as well as other historic places and sights of Cologne. You will learn the background and the meaning of this in your room.

Roman times, the site of today's Alter Markt was located in front of the Rhine wall and was used as a harbor. The history of Cologne begins in the time around the birth of Christ with the decision of the Roman Emperor Augustus and his governor Agrippa to move the Ubians from the right to the left bank of the Rhine.

This happened right here at Cologne's first address: the Praetorium, the foundation of which the Legend Hotel adjoins today. Thus a highly developed Roman provincial city Oppidum Ubiorum was created, the Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne), later named after his granddaughter Agrippina minor

The Alter Markt was first mentioned as Mercatus Coloniae in 922 AD. Originally, Alter Markt and Heumarkt were connected with each other. In Roman times, there was a branch of the Rhine here about 12 meters below the present surface of the square, which bordered the Roman city wall. It was used as a harbor, which could accommodate up to 200 ships.

Today, the 265-meter-long Alter Markt, with an area of 5,460 square meters, is the largest square in Cologne's old town next to the Heumarkt. The Alter Markt plays a central role in Cologne's carnival, because this is where the new carnival season is opened with live concerts on November 11 at 11:11 a.m. every year since 1953, and the street carnival on Weiberfastnacht.   

Directly in front of the Legend Hotel is the so-called archaeological zone of Cologne. This is an archaeological excavation area of about 6,000 m² on and around the Rathausplatz in the center of the city of Cologne.

The area is archaeologically relevant to the Roman period, Jewish history and the Middle Ages in Cologne. A museum for the Jewish history of the city is being built on the Rathausplatz, which was left undeveloped after the destruction of World War II.

The Museum Ludwig, the Roman-Germanic Museum and the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum are just a few museums in the direct vicinity of the Legend Hotel that are famous far beyond the city limits. If you are interested in modern art since the beginning of the 20th century and would like to visit one of the most important museums in this field worldwide, we recommend the Museum Ludwig.

In the Roman-Germanic Museum you can take a journey back in time to Roman Cologne as well as its surrounding area and learn more about the city's history from the Paleolithic Age onwards. In the oldest museum of the city, the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, you will be presented with classical, important paintings from the 13th to the early 20th century.