Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Palaces
Brühl
Augustusburg Palace in Brühl, between Cologne and Bonn, is one of Europe's finest Rococo palaces and, together with the nearby Falkenlust hunting lodge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. Its grand staircase by Balthasar Neumann is a…
Palaces
Düsseldorf
Benrath Palace (Schloss Benrath) in southern Düsseldorf is a pink late-baroque pleasure palace built between 1755 and 1771 for Elector Palatine Karl Theodor by his court architect Nicolas de Pigage. Together with its wings, a long reflecti…
Castles
Solingen
Schloss Burg (Burg Castle) in Solingen rises above the Wupper River as the ancestral seat of the Counts and Dukes of Berg and the landmark of the Bergisches Land region. Behind its gates, curtain wall and keep you will find a museum devote…
Palaces
Selm
Cappenberg Castle (Schloss Cappenberg) in Selm sits on a wooded ridge on the edge of the Münsterland, just north of the Ruhr region. This gleaming white Baroque complex grew out of the first Premonstratensian monastery in the German-speaki…
Palaces
Königswinter
Schloss Drachenburg in Königswinter looks like a castle straight out of a fairy tale: perched halfway up the Drachenfels hill, it bristles with towers, turrets and lavish halls high above the Rhine. Built in the 1880s, it is one of Germany…
Palaces
Jüchen
Schloss Dyck near Jüchen is one of the most important moated castles in the Rhineland, set in a 53-hectare English landscape garden. The yellow main castle with its outer courtyards sits on four islands in a small stream and mirrors itself…
Castles
Dorsten
A large pond with islands joined by bridges, and on them a castle whose towers are mirrored in the water on still days: Lembeck Castle is a Baroque moated castle with outer bailey, main house and park. It lies in the Dorsten district of Le…
Palaces
Bedburg-Hau
Moyland Castle near Bedburg-Hau on the Lower Rhine is a neo-Gothic moated castle that doubles as one of the region's most important museums of modern art. It holds the world's largest collection of works by Joseph Beuys, and its historic p…
Palaces
Münster
Münster Palace (Schloss Münster) is the former residence of the prince-bishops of Münster and today the main building of the University of Münster. Designed by the Westphalian Baroque architect Johann Conrad Schlaun, its red-brick and sand…
Palaces
Nordkirchen
Nordkirchen Castle (Schloss Nordkirchen) in Germany's Münsterland region is a Baroque moated palace so grand that it is nicknamed the "Westphalian Versailles." It stands on an island surrounded by water, avenues and formal gardens, and the…
Palaces
Raesfeld
Raesfeld Castle (Schloss Raesfeld) in the Münsterland region is a Renaissance moated castle with the tallest tower of any castle in Westphalia. It sits between moats and parkland, and an old deer park invites long walks. You can admire the…
Palaces
Mönchengladbach
Schloss Rheydt (Rheydt Castle) in Mönchengladbach is a Renaissance moated castle on the Lower Rhine and now a city museum. Surrounded by water-filled moats, the complex of gatehouse, outer court and manor house is a rewarding stop in North…
Churches & monasteries
Höxter
Corvey Abbey near Höxter on the Weser River is one of Germany's most important monastic sites and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014. Its centerpiece is the Carolingian westwork, built in the 9th century and the oldest surviving struc…
Other
Dortmund
From many points across the city you can see the bright yellow steel pylons rising high above the stadium roof. Signal Iduna Park, still the Westfalenstadion to many fans, is Germany's largest football stadium with 81,365 places. Its most…
Castles
Bielefeld
You can see it from the centre of Bielefeld: the round tower of Sparrenburg Castle, standing some 60 metres above the old town on the Sparrenberg in the Teutoburg Forest. The Counts of Ravensberg built a castle here before 1250, and in the…
Churches & monasteries
Münster
St. Paul's Cathedral in Münster (St.-Paulus-Dom) is the seat of the Diocese of Münster and, together with the historic town hall, the defining landmark of this university city in Westphalia. Its twin Romanesque towers, Gothic interior and…
Viewpoints
Duisburg
From a distance Tiger & Turtle looks like a roller coaster someone left on a hill in south Duisburg. There are no cars: you walk the curves, climbs and drops yourself, step by step. Only the loop is off-limits. The giant sculpture by Heike…
Palaces
Essen
Villa Hügel is what you get when a steel magnate designs his home: 399 rooms, around 11,000 square metres of floor space, built to be as fireproof as possible and set high above the Ruhr valley. Alfred Krupp had it built in 1870–1873. Four…
Palaces
Isselburg
Anholt Castle (Wasserburg Anholt) in Isselburg, near the Dutch border on the Lower Rhine, is one of the largest and most beautiful moated castles in the Münsterland region. The princes of Salm-Salm have owned it since 1647 and still live h…
Castles
Büren
Wewelsburg is a triangular Weser Renaissance castle near Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia, and a place with a difficult history. Built as a residence of the prince-bishops of Paderborn, it was chosen by Heinrich Himmler as an ideologica…
Industrial heritage
Wuppertal
The Wuppertal Schwebebahn is the world's oldest electric suspended monorail still in regular service and the symbol of the city of Wuppertal in western Germany. Since 1901 its cars have hung from a steel frame, gliding mostly above the Wup…
Zoos
Duisburg
Duisburg Zoo, on the edge of the city forest in Germany's Ruhr region, is famous for animals you will not find anywhere else in North Rhine-Westphalia: koalas, wombats, Tasmanian devils and dolphins. The zoo says it keeps more than 5,100 a…
Zoos
Wuppertal
Wuppertal Zoo is one of the few zoos you can reach by suspended monorail: the Zoo/Stadion station of the famous Wuppertal Schwebebahn is close by. The zoo itself climbs a hillside as a 24-hectare park with mature trees. Around 2,200 animal…
Zoos
Gelsenkirchen
ZOOM Erlebniswelt in Gelsenkirchen is a themed zoo that takes you around the world in a day. Across more than 30 hectares in the heart of Germany's Ruhr region, you walk through recreated landscapes of Alaska, Africa and Asia, with almost…