Social Programme

(included in the registration fee)

Congress Dinner - Thursday, November 21

18:30 - 23:00
Exclusive Concert at the Cologne Cathedral
and Congress Dinner at Flora Köln

Bus Departure from each official hotel at 18:30.

Dress code: Business casual
Exclusive Concert at the Cologne Cathedral 

Cologne Cathedral: The city’s hallmark and its heart

The Cathedral and Cologne simply belong together and the church shapes the cityscape. To a Cologne resident, the sight of the Cathedral spires says that you’re home. Today the Cathedral is Cologne’s second-tallest structure, surpassed only by the telecommunications tower. 

Everyone knows this superlative building: It is 157 m tall, covers almost 8,000 square metres of floor space and is the world’s third largest Gothic-style cathedral with 10,000 square metres of windows and 20,000 visitors daily. Some 300,000 tonnes of stones were used in its construction. Maintenance costs per day add up to around €30,000. Its value - priceless, but because it’s unsaleable, it has a book value of only €27.

About 100 people from the Dombauhütte (cathedral masonry office) work every day to maintain the Cathedral as Germany's most popular landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. “When the Cathedral is finished, the world will end” is an old Cologne saying. Even after the 632 years of construction, work thus continues on God’s eternal building site. 
 
But the cathedral is so much more than a sight, a backdrop, a world heritage site or a tourist magnet, because in the end, despite all the valuable exhibits and art objects in the Cathedral Treasure Chamber, in the interior or on the facade, it remains a church with religious services and music that you can experience in this special atmosphere.

Exclusivity of a private organ concert

Only very rarely and only on very special occasions does the cathedral close its doors to the public earlier. This will be the case for the UFI congress delegates. You can look forward to enjoying well-known melodies as part of a very exclusive organ concert in the impressive, venerable ambience of this magnificent building.
Congress Dinner at Flora Köln 

Nestled in the heart of the Botanical Gardens, Flora with its glass annex offers a very special setting for the Ufi Congress Dinner.

Flora can look back upon an eventful history. 14 August 1864 marked the official opening of the Flora, accompanied by a large ball and a concert that included fireworks. 

The building is situated in the heart of extensive, symmetrically-arranged botanical gardens that were laid out by Peter Joseph Lenné in what is known as the ‘mixed German garden style’ and features elements of the Baroque, the Renaissance and the English landscape style. During the years that followed, the park and building were used as exhibition grounds.

Horticultural exhibitions were held there in 1875 and 1888, along with an industry exhibition in 1889 and the ‘German Art Exhibition’ in 1906.
 
The park grounds were enlarged between 1912 and 1914 to become the Botanical Gardens, featuring greenhouses for tropical and subtropical plants and orchids.

The gardens and flora were severely damaged during the Second World War and only reopened as a banquet facility at the end of the 1970s. 

It was extensively renovated again in the early 2010s and restored to its original historical condition. In June 2014 – which was exactly 150 years after the opening in 1864 – Flora Köln was officially reopened; the Botanical Gardens also celebrated its centenary at the same time.

Not just since then, the Flora Köln is considered as one of the finest locations for social events, meetings and concerts in Cologne.