Koblenz entdecken

The Basilica of St. Castor is the oldest church in Koblenz, near the Deutsches Eck at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle. Consecrated in 836 under Archbishop Hetto, it hosted the 842-843 negotiations that led to the Treaty of Verdun, and Pope John Paul II raised it to a minor basilica in 1991.

The Electoral Palace was built between 1777 and 1793 for Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony, the last Archbishop-Elector of Trier, in early French neoclassical style. Rebuilt after wartime bomb damage, it now houses federal government offices; its riverside gardens, laid out for the 2011 Bundesgartenschau, remain open to the public.

The Ludwig Museum Koblenz occupies the Deutschherrenhaus, a former commandry of the Teutonic Order dating to 1216, near the Deutsches Eck. Opened in 1992 as a gift from collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig, it is Germany's only museum devoted to modern and contemporary French art.

Deutsches Eck is the promontory in Koblenz where the Moselle meets the Rhine, named after a commandry of the Teutonic Order once based here. It is marked by a large equestrian statue of Emperor William I, raised in 1897, dismantled in 1945, and replaced with a replica in 1993.

The Koblenz cable car opened on 4 July 2010 for the Bundesgartenschau garden show, carrying passengers 890 metres across the Rhine between the riverbank near Deutsches Eck and the plateau below Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. It climbs 112 metres and continued running after the show ended.

The Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung is the Bundeswehr's defence-technology collection, opened in 1982 in the former Langemarck barracks. About 2,500 objects are on show across roughly 7,200 square metres, spanning military technology from the early 19th century to current equipment, including vehicles, aircraft and artillery.

Ehrenbreitstein Fortress stands on a rocky spur on the Rhine's east bank, opposite the mouth of the Moselle, overlooking Koblenz. Prussia built the present structure between 1817 and 1834 on the site of an earlier stronghold demolished in 1801; it now houses the Landesmuseum Koblenz and a youth hostel.