Explorer Cologne

Cologne Cathedral is a Gothic Catholic cathedral and the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne, begun in 1248 and completed to its medieval design in 1880. Its twin spires rise 157 metres, making it the tallest twin-spired church in the world, and it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

Museum Ludwig is an art museum in Cologne housing modern and contemporary art, including one of Europe's largest Picasso collections and extensive holdings of Pop Art by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. It occupies a distinctive building with an undulating roof next to Cologne Cathedral, completed in 1986.

TimeRide Cologne is a virtual-reality attraction on Alter Markt in the old town, where visitors wear VR headsets for guided journeys through past eras of the city, including a recreation of 1920s Cologne. The venue also offers themed experiences such as a Cologne Cathedral tour and seasonal editions.

Great St. Martin Church is a Romanesque Catholic church in Cologne's old town, its foundations resting on a former Roman chapel on an island in the Rhine. The current buildings, including the crossing tower that is a landmark of the Old Town skyline, were built between 1150 and 1250, after earlier use as a Benedictine monastery.

The Hohenzollern Bridge crosses the Rhine between Cologne's main station and the Deutz side, built between 1907 and 1911 and rebuilt after its wartime destruction in 1945. Now used only by trains and pedestrians, its fencing has been covered in padlocks left by couples since 2008.

The NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne is a museum on National Socialism housed in the EL-DE Haus, the former regional Gestapo headquarters. Built in the 1930s as commercial premises, the building's basement held prison cells where detainees' wall inscriptions can still be seen; the museum opened in 1988.

The Romano-Germanic Museum is an archaeological museum in Cologne dedicated to the Roman city of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, on which modern Cologne stands. Its collection includes the Dionysus mosaic preserved on its original site and one of the world's largest collections of Roman glass. While its building on Roncalliplatz is closed for renovation, a selection of the collection is shown at the Belgian House on Cäcilienstraße.

The Chocolate Museum Cologne opened in 1993 on the Rheinauhafen peninsula, founded by chocolatier Hans Imhoff. Exhibits trace the history of chocolate from the Olmec, Maya and Aztec civilizations to modern manufacturing, with a glass production line showing each step of making chocolate.

Das Kölner Riesenrad is a roughly 48-metre travelling ferris wheel with 36 enclosed, glazed gondolas holding up to six people each. It returns to its home harbour at the Rheinauhafen, beside the Chocolate Museum, for the season running from 23 October 2026 to 3 January 2027, alongside the harbour's Christmas market.

Cologne Zoo opened in 1860, making it the third-oldest zoo in Germany. Spread across more than 20 hectares, it houses over 10,000 animals of more than 850 species, along with an aquarium, and takes part in international breeding programmes for endangered species.