The town’s patron saints

There is also an ancient venerable legend about Bonn that dates back to the times of the early Christians – the legend of the famous Thebaean Legion. This Roman division was made up exclusively of Christians. It refused to honour the Emperor as a god or to participate in the persecution of Christians. The legion was commanded by Mauritius, who was executed in St, Moritz (Valais) in Switzerland together with every tenth man. 
 
According to the legend, the Thebean legionaries, Cassius and Florentius, were martyred in Bonn, Gereon and his comrades in Cologne and St. Victor and St. Victor and his comrades in Xanten. All of these men came from the same body of soldiers. Archaeologists, however, assure that, early in the 4th century AD, namely in Roman times, a memorial was built in Bonn in honour of the Christian martyrs. A small church, and later the cathedral as we know it today, were built on the site where they are said to have been buried. It was here, and not on the site of the Roman camp to the north of the present city, that the city centre developed at the turn of the millennium.