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The Schildergasse (; ksh, Schelderjaß ) is a

shopping street A shopping street or shopping district is a designated road or quarter of a city/town that is composed of individual retail establishments (such as stores, boutiques, restaurants, and shopping complexes). Such areas will typically be pedest ...

in central

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. With 13,000 people passing through it every hour, it is the busiest shopping street in Europe, according to a 2008 survey by GfK. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
Schildergasse ist Europas Nummer 1
2008 survey by CB Richard Ellis The Schildergasse is a designated pedestrian zone and stretches for about 500 meters from the

Hohe Straße Hohe Straße is a shopping street in the old town of Cologne, Germany, and one of the city's both oldest and busiest streets. Together with many of its adjacent side streets, Hohe Straße is part of a designated pedestrian zone and spans about 6 ...

at its eastern end to the Neumarkt at the western end. The street dates back to Roman times, when it was the city's ''

Decumanus Maximus In Roman urban planning, a decumanus was an east–west-oriented road in a Roman city or castrum (military camp). The main decumanus of a particular city was the Decumanus Maximus, or most often simply "the Decumanus". In the rectangular street g ...

''. During the Middle Ages it was home to many artists who painted heraldic coats of arms, whence the street's name (''Schilder'' means signs or escutcheons). Among today's landmarks on Schildergasse are the Atoniterkirche, the oldest Protestant church in Cologne, and

Peek & Cloppenburg Peek & Cloppenburg is an international chain of department stores from Germany. The chain is operated by two separate and independent companies, Peek & Cloppenburg KG Düsseldorf (known as P&C West) and Peek & Cloppenburg KG Hamburg (know ...

's Weltstadthaus, designed by

Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City ( ...

Nearby places of interest

* Käthe Kollwitz Museum * Rautenstrauch Joest Museum * Schnütgen Museum * Church of St. Cäcilien Basilica

References

External links

* http://www.schildergasse.de/ {{Cologne-geo-stub Pedestrian streets in Germany Busking venues Streets in Cologne Shopping districts and streets in Germany Tourist attractions in Cologne Innenstadt, Cologne

Nearby places of interest

See also

References

External links