MiQua in Cologne: All information about the “Museum in the Quarter”
The MiQua is being built in the middle of Cologne’s old town (archive image)
© Horst Galuschka/Imago
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The MiQua in Cologne is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2022. The museum shows Jewish life in Cologne on a 650 meter long circular route.
Cologne – The MiQua is currently “the most exciting construction site in Germany”, i.e. the city of Cologne. After all, the new “Museum im Quartier” is being built in the middle of Cologne’s old town – “about some of the oldest finds in Cologne’s city history”, i.e. the city further. After the opening, visitors to the museum can experience more than 2,000 years of Cologne history barrier-free on a 650-metre-long course. All information about the MiQua.
MiQua in Cologne: The overview of the “Museum in the Quarter”
- This is the MiQua in Cologne: The new museum in the district is being built directly in front of Cologne City Hall.
- Exhibition at MiQua: “The new museum in the district will take up history and stories from 2000 years at this special place in the heart of the city,” promises the project. “The MiQua takes up topics related to Jewish life in the city’s history as well as Cologne’s extensive heritage.”
- MiQua construction site in Cologne: The construction work is still going on – especially underground. The new museum is scheduled to be completed in 2022. The total costs amount to 127 million euros.
MiQua in Cologne: what is planned?
The MiQua is being built directly in front of Cologne City Hall – in and above the closed monuments of Cologne city centre. The museum includes “history and stories from 2000 years at this special place in the heart of the city”. The focus is on the 1700 years of Jewish life in Cologne.
The museum is a cooperation between the city, which is building the museum, and the Rhineland Regional Council, which designs the exhibition and later runs the museum.
“A circular path in the basement will lead visitors to the museum for around 650 meters through findings from the Roman-era praetorium as well as the medieval Jewish and goldsmith district of the city,” according to the Rhineland Regional Council on the “MiQua” page. “In the new museum building on the square, the focus is on the history and culture of Cologne’s Jewish population, from their formation in 1424 to the present day.”
Cologne: MiQua construction site – total costs at 127 million, completion in summer
A planning draft of the MiQua
© Wandel Lorch Architects/dpa
However, construction is still underway. The museum is currently growing mainly underground. “The last sand is still being vacuumed off and the common course of the praetorium with the future ‘LVR Jewish Museum in the Archaeological Quarter of Cologne’ is being prepared.”
The exhibition course will later be 5 meters wide, 2.50 meters high and 650 meters long. “A total of around 18 tons of material were removed per breakthrough,” the city continued. But that is expensive – and time-consuming. The total costs for the MiQua run to over 127 million euros, originally it was 48 million euros.
Cologne: MiQua is scheduled for completion in summer 2022
But that’s not all: After much back and forth, the city announced the construction company. “Constant unreliability, repeated missed deadlines and excessively excessive additional demands” left no other choice, it was said in December 2021. The MiQua is to be completed in summer 2022. On April 7, 2022, Mayor Henriette Reker opened the curtain between the Archaeological Zone and the Praetorium – an important step in the brewing process of the underground facility.
The underground facility @museum_miqua takes shape and the Archaeological Zone merges with the Praetorium. To this end, Mayor Henriette Reker opened the curtain at the central breakthrough point yesterday. pic.twitter.com/BfsCI8E5o0
— City of Cologne (@Cologne) April 7, 2022
MiQua is not the only construction project in Cologne’s old town: Via Culturalis and Laurenz Carré
The MiQua is not one of the few construction projects in Cologne’s old town. Several construction projects are currently being built in the immediate vicinity: whether Via Culturalisthat Laurence Carre or that Large-scale historic center project. The aim is to use the projects to upgrade the “city’s business card”, i.e. the city of Cologne. (jw) More news on the 24RHEIN homepage. Tip: Informed daily about what’s happening in NRW – simply subscribe to our free 24RHEIN newsletter.