Carnival Type: Event City: COLOGNE Location: City of Cologne From 7/2/2002 to 13/2/2002 URL:http://www.koeln.de The Carnival tradition For the 179th time in its history, Cologne will don multi-coloured masks and costumes to usher in its famous carnival. Drawing on its strong traditions, the city is preparing to celebrate for several days running. As usual, the trio of the Prince, the Peasant and the Virgin symbolizes the entire history of Cologne's carnival, which was created in 1823. Worthy of note is the fact that the Virgin is played as a prudish young lady by a male transvestite because social strictures once forbade a woman from playing the part. In any case, nearly 350 performances await the carnival kings, culminating in the carnival parade on Monday, which draws several thousand spectators. Concorde Hotels in COLOGNE : GRANDHOTEL SCHLOSS BENSBERG Back