Cologne (
German:
Köln (
help·info),
IPA: [kœln];
Kölsch:
Kölle [ˈkœɫə]) is
Germany's fourth-largest
city after
Berlin,
Hamburg and
Munich, and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of
North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than 10 million inhabitants. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, having been founded by the
Romans in the year
30 BCE. Cologne was granted the status of a Roman "city" in the year
50 CE.
Cologne lies on the
Rhine. The city's famous
Cologne Cathedral (
Kölner Dom) is the seat of the
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne. The
University of Cologne (
Universität zu Köln) is one of
Europe's oldest universities and internationally renowned for its department of economics.
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