World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne

Cologne Cathedral (the High Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Mary), with a comet passing above it; the state name 'CITTÀ DEL VATICANO', the inscription 'XX Giornata Mondiale della Gioventù', the year 2005, the name of designer Daniela Longo, the initials of engraver Ettore Lorenzo Frapiccini, and the mint mark 'R'.

In the summer of 2005, Cologne became the focal point of the worldwide Catholic Church. The 20th World Youth Day, held from 16 to 21 August in the cathedral city on the Rhine, drew more than a million young believers from over 190 countries - one of the largest religious gatherings Germany has ever hosted. For the Vatican, the significance of the event was particular: it was the first World Youth Day under Pope Benedict XVI, who had been elected shortly before, in April 2005, following the death of John Paul II. Benedict XVI, himself born in Bavaria and long rooted in Germany as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, celebrated his first great encounter with the world's youth as pontiff in Cologne.

Cologne itself is one of the central sites of Western European Christianity. Its Gothic cathedral, a place of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages and today a UNESCO World Heritage site, houses the relics of the Three Kings - a connection that lent the Cologne World Youth Day an additional historical dimension. The city and its cathedral represent more than a thousand years of continuous church life in the German-speaking world. On the occasion of the 20th World Youth Day, the Vatican issued a 2-euro commemorative coin in 2005, capturing this event in the collective memory of coin collectors.