Mikveh

Cologne's mikveh was the ritual bath of the medieval Jewish community and now lies hidden beneath the Rathausplatz. Its history reaches back to the eighth century, though the structure was renovated several times and remodeled in the early twelfth century. The site has been documented archaeologically since 1270, when it appeared in records as the Judenpütz. The structure stood southwest of the synagogue in the old Jewish Quarter and consisted of a vaulted antechamber with a waiting bench and a deep shaft that reached nearly sixteen meters down to the groundwater. According to Jewish ritual, this area served as a source of living water and was used for purification rites, particularly by women after menstruation or childbirth and by men in cases of ritual impurity. Access was originally from the west and later from the east via a spiral staircase. After the expulsion of the Jews in the fifteenth century, the mikveh was filled in and forgotten. Only excavations in the 1950s and 2020s brought the finds back to light. Today the historic site is part of the planned Jewish museum in the Archaeological Quarter Cologne and will not be open to the public until construction is complete.