The Hahnentorburg is one of the original twelve Torburgen in the eight-kilometer medieval city wall (1180-1220) of Cologne and secured the western access to the city on the road to Aachen and Jülich . It is located on today's Rudolfplatz . The gate was built at the beginning of the 13th century as a double tower gate and first mentioned in 1264. Similar to this type of gate is the existing Eigelsteintor in the north of the city wall and the demolished Gereonstor in the northwest.

By Hahnentor entered the Middle Ages the Kings on their coronation - ceremony in Aachen , the city on the Aachener Strasse and moved to the Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral . The Torburg was used as a prison , among others for the walking preacher Adolf Clarenbach and the draftsman, lithographer, publisher and counterfeiter Jodocus Schlappal .

The name of the Great Gate may be derived from "Hageno von Anselm", a former landowner of the same name from the 12th century, after which it was first called Hanenporcen and then Hagenenporcen . [1] According to other sources is the derivation of Hano ( " grove back"), or "Holzpforte" or "wooden door" because of the forest areas along the leading Aachen road outside the city walls . In the Cologne city view of 1570 of the Arnold Mercator she was called "Hanenpforts", the road leading through them was the "Hanen straße" (today's Hahnenstraße ). On the TranchotMap of 1808 was the name of this gate Porte du Coq ("Hahnentor"). In the street renaming after the decision of December 16, 1812, it was named Port des Coqs or "Hahnen-Pforte".

On 18 May 1877 the first stretch of the Cologne horse tram was opened at Hahnentor . The City Council of Cologne decided on February 26, 1881, to acquire the area of ​​the city wall and the associated military area, already on February 28, 1881 signed the Lord Mayor Hermann Heinrich Becker the purchase agreement for the acquisition of the fortress area. On May 5, 1881, the purchase contract between the city of Cologne and the War Department (military treasury) by confirmation of the Chancellor Otto von Bismarcklegally effective, through which the city acquired the area of ​​122.5 hectares for the purchase price of 11.74 million marks. On November 4, 1881, the Prussian military treasury handed over the middle third of the fortified area from Weyertor to Gereonstor to the city administration. [2] It was only on June 5, 1883, the portion of went Weyertor to the Rhine in municipal ownership, on 5 July 1895 was followed by the rest of the Gereonstor north to the Rhine. [3] The demolition of the medieval city wall began on 11 June 1881 in the amount of Gereonstors . The city administration had deliberately decided to integrate only four gateways into the new urban construction concept, namely Hahnentor, Severinstorburg ,Eigelsteintorburg , the rest of the Ulrepforte and four short pieces of wall at the Bottmühle , at the Severinstor, at the Hansaplatz and at the Sachsenring as well as Bayenturm . [4]

Picture source: By © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48133506