Antoniterkirche

The basilica originally belonged to the monastery of the Antonine order and was dedicated to Saint Anthony the Great. During the French occupation the monasteries were dissolved in 1794 and Cologne's Protestants were allowed to hold public services – before that they had to meet in secret or in neighbouring towns such as Mülheim and Frechen. In 1802 the French handed the Antoniterkirche to the Protestant congregation, and in 1802–1805 it was remodelled for Protestant worship under Ferdinand Franz Wallraf. After severe destruction by an air raid in 1942 it was rebuilt by 1952 under Georg Eberlein; Federal President Theodor Heuss attended the reconsecration.

The best-known artwork is the bronze sculpture "Der Schwebende" by Ernst Barlach, hung in the northern side chapel and regarded by many as his masterpiece. It is a second cast of the figure created in 1927, whose original in Güstrow Cathedral was melted down by the Nazis as "degenerate art". The hovering figure bears the features of the artist Käthe Kollwitz and hangs above a stone slab with the years of the First World War and of Nazi rule, 1933–1945. In 2011 two further works by Barlach were added: the "Kruzifix II" and the "Teaching Christ".