 It is uncertain whether these rooms were the same height as the side aisles, as Zimmerman thought on the basis of his excavations or the height of the sidechoir, as in Lange's more recent reconstruction.East of the crossing was the choir with a semicircular end, with the rooms that are accessible from the transepts on either side of it.This first church was destroyed in a fire in 946, which is recorded in the Cologne Annals "Astnide cremabatur" (Essen burnt down).