Brauweiler - St. Nikolaus

Brauweiler, now a district of Pulheim, borders Cologne to the east, but is still largely surrounded by agriculture.

In the "Fundatio monasterii Brunwilarensis", a source of the late 11th century, the construction of a wooden chapel in which relics of Saint Medardus from Soissons were kept is mentioned. Count-Palatine Hermann I had a new chapel built of stone and rebuilt a destroyed manor nearby.

Around 991, the wedding between Count Palatine Ezzo-Ehrenfried and Mathilde, a daughter of Emperor Otto II and Theophanu, took place here. On this occasion, Ezzo transferred the estate.

During a pilgrimage to Rome before 1024, Ezzo and Mathilde received relics of St. Nicholas and a cross from the Pope for the foundation of a monastery.

The abbot Poppo of Stablo was entrusted with the foundation of the monastery. In 1024 seven monks arrived at Brauweiler and began the construction of the monastery. The church and monastery were consecrated in 1028. From 1065 until his death in 1091, Wolfhelm of Brauweiler, later Saint Wolfhelm, was abbot here.

A period of prosperity was brought about by the introduction of the Bursfeld Reform in 1467. The abbey last built the prelate's wing from 1780 to 1785. After the French occupation of the Left Bank of the Rhine, the abbey was dissolved in 1802 in the course of secularization. The abbey church became a parish church, while the buildings were used as a labor institution from 1815 by the Prussian government. Since 1920, the "Bewahrungshaus" and "Zellengebäude" were rented to the Cologne justice administration.

These two buildings served as a concentration camp for one year starting in 1933, then as a prison for the Cologne Gestapo until 1945. Over 1000 people were imprisoned here by the Nazis during the entire period.

St. Nikolaus, the former abbey church, was built between 1136 and 1240.

The Romanesque crypt is the oldest part of the building.