Church of St. Maria in Lyskirchen

This guide to the Church of St. Maria in Lyskirchen in Cologne begins with six hundred years of whitewash hiding a painted ceiling, until restorers started scraping the plaster away in 1879. It follows the smallest of Cologne's twelve great Romanesque churches through its narrow escape from the bombing that flattened its grander neighbors, and introduces the wooden Sailor's Madonna that river boatmen once trusted above all others. Along the way you'll hear about the tenth-century private chapel that once stood on this site. Look up as you enter, and imagine centuries of parishioners who never knew what was over their heads.