The streets are the Trankgasse and Unter fetten Hennen, neither of which survives. Cologne Cathedral is shown from the north west in the unfinished state in which it remained until 1842. The Gothic choir, terminated by a closing wall with balustrade, is seen in the centre of the picture with the south tower of the west front to the right surmounted by a wooden crane (erected by the mid-fifteenth century and dismantled in 1868). Van der Heyden has taken some licence with the buildings: the proportions of the tower are too slender and the façade of the Deanery and minor buildings are probably fanciful. The figures appear to be by the artist himself. The picture belonged to the duc de Choiseul and the prince de Conti in the eighteenth century when it was paired with an unidentified street scene by the same artist.