Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum

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-based exhibits (art, living, death and the afterlife, religions etc) on the cultures of the world; fear not about getting your knuckles rapped – many are interactive and you're encouraged to touch.

A combination ticket with the adjacent Museum Schnütgen costs €10 (concession €7).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Cologne attractions

1. Museum Schnütgen

0.01 MILES

The Museum Schnütgen is an exquisite repository of medieval religious art and sculpture from the Rhineland region presented within the serene ambience of…

2. Käthe Kollwitz Museum

0.2 MILES

Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) was a famous early 20th-century German artist whose social and political awareness lent a tortured power to her lithographs,…

3. Kolumba

0.29 MILES

Art, history, architecture and spirituality form a harmonious tapestry in this spectacular collection of the Archdiocese of Cologne's religious treasures…

4. Church of St Maria im Kapitol

0.34 MILES

The striking clover-leaf choir is an architectural feature pioneered at this 11th-century Romanesque church, where major treasures include the ethereal…

5. Duftmuseum im Farina-Haus

0.39 MILES

Credit for inventing eau de cologne is usually given to Johann Maria Farina and dated to 1709. This private museum in the original factory building takes…

6. NS-Dokumentationszentrum

0.39 MILES

Cologne's Third Reich history is poignantly and exhaustively documented in the NS Documentation Centre housed in the very building that served as the…

8. Museum für Angewandte Kunst

0.4 MILES

If Aalto, Eames and Olivetti are music to your ears, you should swing by the Museum of Applied Arts, which displays a prestigious and extensive collection…