© by Czesław Białczyński
© translated by Katarzyna Goliszek
in other words, about disappearance of social memory and popularisation of deceit and nonsense
” …The name of the city lies deeply in its history. .
All ways of the empire led to Rome. At the road leading to the capital city from the far north was Cologne – Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensis – such was the name of the military settlement on the west coast of the Rhine separating the Roman province Germania from the barbarous world. Thanks to the care of Agrypina, Emperor Claudius’s wife (a Latin name of the city commemorates both of them) who was born nowhere else but on the edge of the great empire, it quickly became the capital city of the whole province.
It was there, in 383 AD that Britons’ princess – Ursula was going back from the pilgrimage to the holy city. She was accompanied by eleven thousand virgins. Because the times were troubled, they all fell into the hands of Huns, under the command of Atylla,besieging the city.
The commander of barbarians fell in love with Ursula, but she refused to marry him. He murdered her and all the virgins accompanying her. Seeing the crowds of the martyrs going to heaven, the horrified Huns abandoned the walls, and grateful inhabitants accepted Ursula and all her entourage as the patronesses of the city.
Where did thousands of virgins come from? Probably from incorrect reading of the Latin inscription. Probably there were eleven virgins. This number of flames in the crest reminds of those events full of legends.
