The Historical Archive is one of the most important European municipal archives, characterized by the large number of significant individual holdings, their continuity and the exceptionally high density of records. It forms the written “Cologne city memory”, as it preserves a large number of documents from Cologne’s city history and the history of the Rhineland and makes them accessible to its users.

The holdings of the Historical Archives include not only documents and files from the municipal administration, but also the estates and collections of important personalities.