Cologne
Art, history, architecture and spirituality form a harmonious tapestry in this spectacular collection of the Archdiocese of Cologne's religious treasures…
Must-see attractions in Cologne & Northern Rhineland
Cologne & Northern Rhineland
The crown jewel of Xanten’s Altstadt is the Dom St Viktor, which has Romanesque roots but is now largely Gothic. It is framed by a walled close, called an…
Ostwestfalen
Enter Paderborn’s massive (104m long!) Gothic Dom through the southern portal (called ‘Paradise’) adorned with delicate carved figures. Inside, turn your…
Ostwestfalen
This fairy-tale medieval castle started out as the home of the local counts, then served military purposes under the Prussians before becoming, in 1912,…
Düsseldorf
Where sweat once dripped off dockland workers’ foreheads, creative minds now forge ad campaigns and newspaper headlines. The Medienhafen (Media Harbour)…
Cologne & Northern Rhineland
With its Rapunzel towers and Romeo-and-Juliet balcony, neo-Gothic Schloss Moyland is an unexpected sight amid the dull expanses of the Lower Rhine…
The Ruhrgebiet
The Tetraeder is one of the most striking stops on the Ruhr Valley's Industrial Heritage Trail. The airy 60m-high installation by Wolfgang Christ is a…
Friedensmuseum Brücke von Remagen
Cologne & Northern Rhineland
At the end of WWII, as the Allies raced across France and Belgium to rid Germany of Nazism, the Wehrmacht tried frantically to stave off defeat by…
Cologne
This boat-shaped, high-tech temple to the art of chocolate making has plenty of engaging exhibits on the 5000-year cultural history of the ‘elixir of the…
Dortmund
You can see it from afar – the golden ‘U’ atop the tower once used for beer storage by the now defunct Union Brauerei. Once one of Dortmund’s largest and…
The Ruhrgebiet
Fans of historical trains have plenty to admire at this vast museum, which displays around 120 steam locomotives (many puffing away), coaches and wagons…
Aachen
Fifty life-sized statues of German rulers, including 30 kings crowned in Aachen between AD 936 and 1531, adorn the facade of Aachen's splendid Gothic town…
Cologne
Cologne's Third Reich history is poignantly and exhaustively documented in the NS Documentation Centre housed in the very building that served as the…
The Ruhrgebiet
Part of the Zeche Zollverein colliery-turned-cultural centre, this museum showcases the best in contemporary design in the former stoker's hall,…
Cologne & Northern Rhineland
Part of Brühl's park-and-palace ensemble, Jagdschloss Falkenlust is a petite rococo jewel designed by François Cuvilliés as a hunting palace. This is…
The Ruhrgebiet
Bottrop-born Josef Albers (1888–1976) was a painter of abstract works that combine bold use of colour with geometric forms. A member of the Bauhaus school…
Erzbischöfliches Diözesanmuseum
Ostwestfalen
Outside the Dom, an incongruously modernist structure by Gottfried Böhm stands atop vestiges of a medieval bishop's palace and shelters prized church…
Ostwestfalen
Schloss Neuhaus, a moated palace with an expansive park, once served as the residence of the Paderborn prince-bishops. A new museum inside the palace…
Ostwestfalen
St Maria zur Höhe is a squat 13th-century hall church that's less architecturally refined than others in town. Its sombreness is brightened by beautiful…
Münster
One of Münster’s finest churches, the late-Gothic St Lambertikirche was built in 1450. It's filled with wonderful treasures but the most fascinating…
The Ruhrgebiet
This museum is famous for its vast collection of modern international sculpture by artists including Archipenko, Giacometti, Kollwitz, Ernst and Chillida…
Cologne
This ethno-museum makes a bold opening statement with a huge rice barn from Sulawesi filling its cavernous lobby. Beyond here are three floors of theme…
Ostwestfalen
You don’t have to be a techie to enjoy this museum, a high-tech romp through 5000 years of information technology from cuneiform to cyberspace…
The Ruhrgebiet
Essen’s medieval Dom is an island of quiet engulfed by the commercialism of pedestrianised Kettwiger Strasse, the main shopping strip. It has a priceless…
Cologne
The Museum Schnütgen is an exquisite repository of medieval religious art and sculpture from the Rhineland region presented within the serene ambience of…
Cologne & Northern Rhineland
It was on the Rathaus steps that the Peace of Westphalia was proclaimed on 25 October 1648, ending the Thirty Years' War. The preceding peace negotiations…
MKM Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst
The Ruhrgebiet
One of the biggest collections of German art created after 1945 is on display at this humongous historical mill and grain storage silo in the Inner…
Cologne
If you look at Cologne’s coat of arms, you’ll see what looks like 11 apostrophes. In fact, the squiggles represent St Ursula and 11,000 virgins who were…
Dortmund
Dating to 1280, the Reinoldi church is named after the city’s patron saint. As the story goes, after Reinold was martyred in Cologne, the carriage…
Cologne
Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) was a famous early 20th-century German artist whose social and political awareness lent a tortured power to her lithographs,…
The Ruhrgebiet
This barrel-shaped tower – spectacularly lit at night – stored gas to power blast furnaces from the 1920s until 1988. Six years later, the Gasometer…
Aachen
A modern triangular building in the midst of where the great man walked, this museum looks at not only the life and times of Charlemagne but also Aachen's…
Cologne & Northern Rhineland
The unbalanced towers are just one of the idiosyncratic architectural features that make Osnabrück's cathedral an intriguing place. Parts date to 1100,…
Dortmund
Marienkirche is the oldest of Dortmund’s churches, and its Romanesque origins are still visible in the round-arched nave. The star exhibit here is the…
Düsseldorf
The Kunstpalast stages changing exhibitions drawn from its well-respected art collection and often presented in paradigm-shifting ways. As such, old…
Ostwestfalen
Ponder the balance and beauty of the soaring and dignified tower of St Patrokli, a three-nave 10th-century Romanesque structure partly adorned with…
Münster
A treat for fans of Pablo Picasso, one of the 20th century's seminal artists, in this 18th-century neoclassical mansion whose changing exhibits are drawn…
Cologne
The striking clover-leaf choir is an architectural feature pioneered at this 11th-century Romanesque church, where major treasures include the ethereal…
Aachen
In a former umbrella factory, the well-respected Ludwig Forum trains the spotlight on American and European contemporary art (Warhol, Richter, Holzer,…
Cologne
Remnants of the Praetorium (governor's palace), the political power nexus of Roman Cologne, have been discovered beneath the medieval town hall. In a well…
