Church of St. Ursula

Source: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/church-st-ursula



The short version of the story goes a little something like this: Saint Ursula was a Roman-British Princess who, in the 300s, decided she would go on a pan-European pilgrimage. She packed a boat with her 11,000 virginal best friends - which immediately calls to question what kind of boat in the 300s could have fit 11,000 people on it - and the giggling virgins set out for Rome. (One can’t help but wonder how salty sailors would have felt about ferrying thousands of young female virgins about…)

In a miraculous turn of events, a freak storm blew the boat to Rome in a single day, and Ursula convinced the Pope and a few other religious figures to join them on their pilgrimage. Everything was going great until the ladies stopped in Cologne, where they were captured by the Huns - a sort of collective Boogeyman plaguing Europe at the time - and all 11,000 virgins were promptly beheaded and Ursula shot dead.

In 1155 a mass grave was found in Cologne - they had already found some remains claimed to be the virgins, but this was the jackpot - and it was assumed by the Church that this must be the grave site of Ursula and the 11,000 virgins. The church - which was already in honor of St. Ursula - was expanded to make room for the incredible amount martyred virginal bones that it now needed to house.