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Cologne (, IPA: ; Kölsch: Kölle ) is Germany's fourth-largest city after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than 10 million inhabitants. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, having been founded by the Romans in the year 30 BCE. Cologne was granted the status of a Roman "city" in the year 50 CE.