Free Walking Sightseeing Tour #1 in Cologne, Germany

St. Gereon's Basilica is a German Roman Catholic church in Cologne, dedicated to Saint Gereon, and designated a minor basilica on 25 June 1920. The first mention of a church at the site, dedicated to St. Gereon, appears in 612. However, the building of the current choir gallery, apse, and transepts occurred later, beginning under Archbishop Arnold II von Wied in 1151 and ending in 1227. It is one of twelve great churches in Cologne that were built in the Romanesque style.

Wikipedia: St. Gereon's Basilica, Cologne (EN), Website

The Cologne Marian Column is one of the oldest of the Rhenish Marian Columns. This monument to the devotion to the Virgin Mary made of Udelfang sandstone was designed by Vincenz Statz in neo-Gothic style and completed in 1858; today the column stands on the Gereonsdriesch, a small park in the Altstadt-Nord district in the immediate vicinity of the east choir of the Romanesque church of St. Gereon.

Wikipedia: Mariensäule (Köln) (DE)

The Roman Tower is a Roman watchtower decorated with mosaics on the Roman city wall in Cologne's Old Town North.

Wikipedia: Römerturm (Köln) (DE)

EL-DE Haus, officially the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne, located in Cologne, is the former headquarters of the Gestapo and now a museum documenting the Third Reich.

Wikipedia: EL-DE Haus (EN)

The Court Building at Appellhofplatz is a historic building in Cologne-Altstadt-Nord on Appellhofplatz. The modified preserved building has been a listed building since 22 December 1983.

Wikipedia: Justizgebäude am Appellhofplatz (DE)

The Desertur monument in Cologne-Altstadt-Nord on Appellhofplatz recognizes deserters and war opponents from the time of National Socialism in the form of a pergola of the Swiss designer Ruedi Baur. It was officially handed over to the public on September 1, 2009.

Wikipedia: Deserteurdenkmal (Köln) (DE), Website

The Alte Wache at the Zeughaus is one of the few surviving or rebuilt classicist buildings from the beginning of the Prussian period in Cologne. It is located opposite the Regional Council in Zeughausstraße. It is connected to the old armoury by a connecting building; the entire building complex houses the Cologne City Museum, with the Alte Wache being used for temporary exhibitions.

Wikipedia: Alte Wache Zeughaus (DE), Website

Maria ad Ortum was a three-nave late Romanesque church of the Cistercian Order of the Cistercian Sisters "zo sent Marie garden", Mariengarten, in Cologne, which was abolished and discarded during the French period. It is still remembered today by a street name and a chapel bearing its old Latin name.

Wikipedia: St. Maria ad Ortum (DE)

The former Hotel Fürstenhof is an office and commercial building in Cologne's Altstadt-Nord district. Due to its location directly opposite the cathedral, the building, which stands on the corner of Marzellenstraße 2–8 / Trankgasse, is one of the best-known secular buildings in Cologne. It was built in 1911 and 1912 according to a design by the Cologne architect Carl Moritz.

Wikipedia: Fürstenhof (Köln) (DE)

The finials of Cologne Cathedral from the tops of the two towers at a height of 149 to 157 metres. A copy of this finial in original size, but made of concrete, has stood below the steps in front of the west façade of the cathedral since 1991.

Wikipedia: Finials of Cologne Cathedral (EN)

The Taubenbrunnen is a fountain plastic built by Ewald Mataré in 1953 in the Altstadt-Nord district of Cologne, located in front of the west side of the Cologne Cathedral or the cathedral plate.

Wikipedia: Taubenbrunnen (Köln) (DE)

The Blau-Gold-Haus is an office and commercial building in Cologne's Old Town North, Domkloster 2, in the immediate vicinity of Cologne Cathedral. It was completed in 1952 and has been a listed building since 1991, was gutted and converted into a hotel between 2010 and 2012. It is considered an important example of post-war German modernism.

Wikipedia: Blau-Gold-Haus (DE)

The St. Peter's Bell is bell 1 of the Cologne Cathedral bells. It was cast on 5 May 1923 by master bell founder Heinrich Ulrich (1876–1924) in Apolda and has its home in the belfry of the south tower. With a mass of around 24,000 kilograms and a lower diameter of 322 cm, it was for more than 90 years – until November 2016 – the largest bell in the world that swings on a straight yoke.

Wikipedia: St. Petersglocke (DE)

The peristyle house with the Dionysus mosaic is a Roman dwelling house, the remains of which were found in 1941 during the excavation of an air-raid shelter, the cathedral bunker, near Cologne Cathedral.

Wikipedia: Peristylhaus mit dem Dionysosmosaik (DE)

The Cologne Cathedral Treasury of the Metropolitan Chapter of the High Cathedral Church belongs to Cologne Cathedral. It is located on the north side of the cathedral. Large parts of Cologne's cathedral treasure are exhibited in it. Christian art from the 4th to the 20th century is shown there. The cathedral treasury was inaugurated on 21 October 2000 and was heavily criticised at the time. Many felt that the cube encased in dark bronze plates, which represents the entrance area to the cathedral treasury, was a foreign body in front of the Gothic north façade of the cathedral.

Wikipedia: Domschatzkammer Köln (DE)

The equestrian statue of Frederick William IV of Prussia by the sculptor Gustav Blaeser, made of bronze, is located at the portal of the Hohenzollern Bridge on the right bank of the Rhine. The equestrian statue of his brother and successor William I by Frederick Drake stands just a few metres away on the other side of the railway line. Frederick William IV had worked hard for the completion of the cathedral building. Both monuments were originally located on the former cathedral bridge. The monument was inaugurated in 1867.

Wikipedia: Reiterstandbild Friedrich Wilhelms IV. (Köln) (DE)

The State House at the Rheinpark is an event building in Cologne-Deutz, which is to be converted into the future musical theater in Cologne. The listed building from the 1920s with daylight bright exhibition rooms and brick facade borders directly on the halls of the Koelnmesse, the dance fountain area and the Rheinpark. The two -aisled building, which runs out of parallel and colonnade, is visually shared in the middle by an open arch building. It has been home to the Cologne Opera since 2016, which it uses as an interim game until 2024 until the renovation of the riphahn building on Offenbachplatz has been completed. An opening of the stages at the original venue on Offenbachplatz is planned for the 2024/2025 season.

Wikipedia: Staatenhaus am Rheinpark (DE)

The Rheinpark is a 40 hectare (0,4 km²) large urban park along the right bank of the river Rhine in Cologne, Germany. The park lies between the Cologne districts of Deutz and Mülheim and includes a beach club, an open-air theater and a Roman Thermae styled public bath. It was voted Germany's best park in 2007.

Wikipedia: Rheinpark (EN)