Sights in North Rhine Westphalia
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Heinrich Heine's Birth House
Heinrich Heine's Birth House at Bolkerstrasse 53 now contains a literary bookshop, café and reading room.
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Rathaus
The 1573 Rathaus is built in Renaissance style and neatly frames the historic Marktplatz.
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Folkwang School for Music, Dance and Drama
A prestigious school on the southern Ruhr bank.
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Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud
A famous collection of paintings from the 13th to the 19th centuries, the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum occupies a postmodern cube designed by the late OM Ungers. Works are presented chronologically, with the oldest on the 1st floor where standouts include brilliant examples from the Cologne School, known for its distinctive use of colour. Upstairs are Dutch and Flemish artists, including Rembrandt and Rubens, Italians such as Canaletto and Spaniards such as Murillo. The 3rd floor focuses on the 19th century, with evocative works by Caspar David Friedrich and Lovis Corinth. There’s also a respectable collection of impressionist paintings, including canvases by Monet and…
reviewed
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Triton fountain
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Statue of Jan Wellem
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Schmela Haus
Designed by noted Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck, the Schmela Haus opened in 1971 as a private gallery. It's now part of the state museum and its angular grey pumice exterior is an architectural landmark.
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Roman Arch
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Reinoldikirche
Dating to 1280, this church is named after the city’s patron saint. As the story goes, after the Reinold was martyred in Cologne, the carriage containing his coffin rolled all the way to Dortmund, stopping on the spot of the church. There’s a statue of him, opposite Charlemagne, at the entrance to the choir. Of outstanding artistic merit is the late-Gothic high altar. There are good views from the bell tower.
reviewed
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Rathaus
The Dom gazes serenely over Aachen’s Rathaus, a splendid Gothic pile festooned with 50 life-size statues of German rulers, including the 30 kings crowned in town. It was built in the 14th century atop the foundations of Charlemagne’s palace, of which only the eastern tower, the Granusturm, survives. Inside, the undisputed highlights are the Kaisersaal with its epic 19th-century frescos by Alfred Rethel and the replicas of the imperial insignia: a crown, orb and sword (the originals are in Vienna).
The Rathaus sits proudly facing the Markt.
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Petrikirche
The 14th-century Petrikirche's show-stopper is the massive Antwerp altar (1520), featuring 633 individually carved and gilded figurines in scenes depicting the Easter story. Note that the altar is closed in summer, exposing only the panels’ painted outer side.
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Panorama
Feel like a coal miner as you climb dozens of steps up from the Ruhr Museum to the summit of the coal-washing building, where a large viewing platform lets you ponder the vast scope of Zollverein, with the Ruhrgebiet as a backdrop. There's also a multimedia presentation on industrial culture.
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Marienkirche
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 Marienaltar (1420), with a delicate triptych by local son Conrad von Soest. In the northern nave is the equally impressive Berswordt Altar (1385). Both were saved from wartime destruction; the churches all needed massive reconstruction.
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Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
The regional art museum is spread over three separate buildings. Its diversity and richness reflect the high importance art has in local life. During opening hours, a shuttle bus runs every 20 minutes between K20 and K21.
K20 Grabbeplatz A collection that spans the arc of 20th-century artistic vision gives the K20 an enviable edge in the art world. Paul Klee is well represented but walls are also graced by plenty of other Western European and American big-shots, including Picasso, Matisse, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Düsseldorf’s own Joseph Beuys. A recent revamp has made things even more impressive.
K21 Ständehaus A stately 19th-century parliament building…
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Kaufhof
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Katschhof
It's worth finding a comfy spot to sit and contemplate this deeply historic square. On the north end is the backside of the Rathaus; across from it is the Dom and its complex of buildings. To the west is a mishmash of old buildings that have parts dating back to when this was part of Charlemagne's palace. This will be the future site of the Route Charlemagne information centre.
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Goldene Kammer
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German Football Museum
Classic scenes of German football triumphs will play across the facade of this vast new shrine to the nation's passion. Right outside the Hauptbahnhof, the museum will have 6900 sq m of exhibits. Opening is planned for 2014.
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Future Jüdisches Museum
Cologne had a large Jewish population in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the foundations of a large neighbourhood have been uncovered as part of the new U-Bahn line construction as well as improvements to the Roman Praetorium site and exhibit in the same area. A new Jewish museum based on these discoveries is set to rise behind the Rathaus, with work begun in 2012. In the meantime, at times the subterranean parts of a medieval synagogue here are open to the public. Visit the work site for more details.
reviewed
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Foto-Museum Agfa Foto-Historama
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Filmmuseum
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Elvis Presley Exhibition
The connection between the King and Düsseldorf isn't even tenuous – there is none. But three avid local collectors of anything Presley have opened this museum with their collections anyway. The ostensible peg is Elvis's time on an US Army base some 200km southeast of here. To that end there's the guitar he used while in Germany and literally thousands more objects relating to him (his alarm clock even!).
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Dortmunder U
You can see it from afar – the golden ‘U’ atop the tower of the defunct Union Brauerei. Once one of Dortmund’s largest and most famous breweries, the protected landmark has been reborn as a cultural centre. Three upper floors are home to the Museum am Ostwall, an art-world star thanks to its far-reaching collection of all major 20th- and 21st-century genres – expressionism to art informel, fluxus to op art to concrete art. This translates into works by Macke, Nolde, Beuys and Paik, and living artists including Jochen Gerz, and Anna and Bernhard Blume. Many exhibitions outside the museum are free and there are great views from the top-floor cafe. It's a…
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Dom South Tower
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