We visited the Köln-Deutz component on a sunny hot September day in 2023 as the Praetorium was (and still is) closed for visitors. A 20 minute walk from Cologne Cathedral across the Hohenzollernbrucke to the eastern bank of the Rhine allows for excellent views of the modern-day cathedral but in Roman times would have had line of sight to the provincial governors palace at the Praetorium. You will have the (admittedly few) remains all to yourself as visitors instead throng the riverfront or city centre. An unexciting 10-15 minutes is the extent of the visit to what are some 1970s reconstructed outlines (using original stones) of one of the gates of the Divittia bridgehead fort, its location in a quiet pedestrian throughway a far cry from being an essential part of Emperor Constantine’s late Roman era defensive line. 

There is an information board onsite (fully in German if I recall) and a bronze model up some steps that we missed. Far more is actually to be gleaned from the nomination and ICOMOS documents which identifies Köln-Deutz as one of the few components to actually have some above-ground features as well as the only permanent military installation of the Lower German Limes on the right bank of the Rhine, connected by a 400m bridge to the colony that is now Cologne. Forts of the Late Roman period are characterised by heavy stone walls and large numbers of round towers, of which Köln-Deutz is the best preserved example and seemingly a blueprint for other such forts. Divitia, with its 18 projecting rounded towers, is also one of the few examples of a Late Roman fort where the interior layout of barracks, roads and sewers catering to 1,000 soliders is fully understood. Built around 309AD, when Köln was taken over by the Franks in the 450s AD, Roman rule of the Lower Rhine area finally ceased.

The remains of the western gate are now hidden under the ‘Rheinboulevard’. The nomination file rates this component (out of 3) as 1 for wholeness, 2 for intactness, 3 for form and design, 2 for materials and substance and 3 for location and setting. I love the Romans, but can’t help feel that doesn’t quite tally with my own rating scale!