Walking out of the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) of Köln, you are confronted by a tall, massive, almost menacing remnant of Gothic architecture. An epic feat of construction, the church stands at the city square, now serving as a massive tourist attraction more than a place of worship.
On Sunday morning, we attended the church service. The church was very liturgical, with old hymns and frequent readings from various passages and doctrines. This was much more traditional than what I was used to, and I thought it was an interesting experience (And rather hard to understand, since my German isn’t really that great.) I particularly liked their communion, where every service, everyone came up to take part in the sacrament.
After the service ended, we left the church and had to exit through the massed crowd of tourists waiting to get in to tour the church. The crowd waiting outside to see the church was probably two times the size of the group leaving after worshipping. To me, this showed how much culture had changed over time in Europe. At one point the church was the most important building in a town, for people to gather and worship, but today it is a tourist attraction. Almost every church we have been in had a small shop attached to it selling souvenirs and trinkets.
There has been a significant decrease in church attendance across Europe during the 21st century, changing the beautiful historical churches into museums. In my opinion, this backs the idea that it is a ‘Post-Christian Europe,’ with religion seen as a thing of the past.