Cologne travel guide

Top 10 sights in Cologne

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

   Cologne Cathedral

   Begun in 1248, abandoned in 1560 with the crane still standing on the unfinished tower, and completed to the original plans in 1880 — six hundred and thirty-two years. It was then the tallest building in the world for four years, and it holds the golden shrine of the Three Kings, made about 1225.

   TiqetsKlook
2. 

   2© Hans Peter Schaefer - http://www.reserv-a-rt.de · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Wallraf–Richartz Museum

   The oldest museum in Cologne, founded in 1861 from a canon's bequest, holding medieval painting through to the nineteenth century. Its collection of Cologne panel painting of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is the largest anywhere.

   TiqetsKlook
3. 

   3© Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Cologne Central Mosque

   A mosque completed in 2017 in Ehrenfeld, holding four thousand worshippers and the largest in Germany, built by the Turkish state's religious authority. Erdogan opened it in person, which was itself the controversy in a city with a large Turkish population.

   TiqetsKlook
4. 

   4© Thomas Robbin · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Museum Ludwig

   A museum of modern art built on an enormous donation from the collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig, and holding the third-largest Picasso collection in the world along with strong Pop and Russian avant-garde rooms.

   TiqetsKlook
5. 

   5© Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Romano-Germanic Museum

   An archaeological museum built over a Roman villa, so that its Dionysus mosaic of about AD 220 is displayed in the room it was laid in. The Poblicius tomb monument, fifteen metres high, stands reassembled in the hall, and a Roman road runs past the door.

   TiqetsKlook
6. 

   6© Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Roonstrasse Synagogue

   A synagogue of 1899, and the only one of Cologne's five to survive the war as a building. Konrad Adenauer, who had been the city's mayor before the Nazis removed him, pressed for its restoration, and it reopened in 1959.

   TiqetsKlook
7. 

   7© A.Savin · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Mülheim

   A district on the right bank that was a town in its own right with market rights in the Middle Ages. The suspension bridge that carries its name crosses to the cathedral side and was rebuilt after the war using the original 1929 design.

   TiqetsKlook
8. 

   8© Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 4.0

   St. Gereon's Basilica

   A church whose oval core is late Roman, of about 350, rebuilt in 1227 with a ten-sided ribbed dome — the largest vault built anywhere in the West between Hagia Sophia and the dome of Florence. The Roman masonry is visible in the walls.

   TiqetsKlook
9. 

   9© Beckstet at German Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   St. Pantaleon's Church

   An early Romanesque church of the tenth century, and one of the twelve Romanesque churches that make Cologne remarkable. Theophanu, the Byzantine princess who married Otto II and effectively ruled the empire as regent, is buried in it.

   TiqetsKlook
10. 

    10

    Colonius

    The city's telecommunications tower, finished in 1981 at two hundred and sixty-six metres. Its restaurant closed in 1994 and the observation deck in 1999 on fire safety grounds, so the tallest structure in Cologne can no longer be climbed.

    TiqetsKlook

Popular tickets & tours in Cologne

Live products and prices are provided directly by Klook.

KlookOpen Cologne activitiesBrowse tickets & toursKKdayOpen Cologne activitiesBrowse tickets & tours

Trending now

Based on 2025 Wikipedia pageviews — popular places beyond the top 10.

1. 

   1© Wolkenkratzer · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Phantasialand

   A theme park at Brühl outside Cologne, opened in 1967 and drawing about two million visitors a year. It is known among enthusiasts for building the most technically ambitious rides in Europe on a very tight site.

   TiqetsKlook
2. 

   2© Own work · CC BY 3.0 de

   Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium

   The Roman colony founded in AD 50 at the request of Agrippina, Nero's mother, who had been born in the military settlement here — the city carries an abbreviated form of her name to this day. It became the capital of Lower Germany and had a population of some twenty thousand.

   TiqetsKlook
3. 

   3© Hans Peter Schaefer Url: http://www.reserv-a-rt.de, saturation by User:elya · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Great St. Martin Church

   A Romanesque church on the riverbank whose foundations are a Roman warehouse on what was then an island in the Rhine. Its trefoil east end and crossing tower give the old town its silhouette beside the cathedral; it was rebuilt after the war and reconsecrated in 1985.

   TiqetsKlook
4. 

   4© Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Kolumba

   An art museum run by the archdiocese of Cologne. It stands on the site of St Kolumba, destroyed in the Second World War, and encloses the chapel of the Madonna of the Ruins that Gottfried Böhm built there in 1950.

   TiqetsKlook
5. 

   5© Photo: Arminia, cropped by Elya, · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Schokoladenmuseum Köln

   A chocolate museum opened in 1993 on a spit of land in the Rheinau harbour, with a working production line, a greenhouse of cacao trees and a three-metre fountain of tempered chocolate that visitors are given wafers to dip in.

   TiqetsKlook
6. 

   6© cut out by Zefram from original image by Lars Schmitt/Raven · CC BY 2.5

   Cologne Zoological Garden

   The zoo of Cologne, the third oldest in Germany. It keeps more than ten thousand animals of 850 species on over twenty hectares, with an aquarium and an invertebrate house, and works on the conservation breeding of endangered species.

   TiqetsKlook
7. 

   7© Paul Hermans · CC BY-SA 3.0

   St. Maria im Kapitol

   Built between 1040 and 1065 over the site of a Roman temple to the Capitoline Triad, this is the largest of Cologne's twelve Romanesque churches, measuring 100 by 40 metres. Its trefoil east end of three apses echoes the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

   TiqetsKlook
8. 

   8

   St. Kunibert's Church

   The last of Cologne's twelve Romanesque churches to be built, consecrated in 1247 — one year before work began on the Gothic cathedral. Pope John Paul II raised it to the rank of minor basilica in 1998.

   TiqetsKlook
9. 

   9© Ladislaus Hoffner · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Flora und Botanischer Garten Köln

   A municipal garden and botanical garden of 11.5 hectares at 34 Amsterdamer Strasse beside Cologne Zoo, free to enter. It was laid out in 1863 as the Flora Park to replace the old botanical garden beside the cathedral, which was lost to the building of the central station in 1857.

   TiqetsKlook
10. 

    10© Superbass · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Ehrenfeld

    One of the boroughs of Cologne, made up of seven districts including Ehrenfeld, Neuehrenfeld, Bickendorf and Ossendorf. It covers 23.98 square kilometres and had about 109,500 residents in December 2020.

    TiqetsKlook