135 Best Sights in The Rhineland, Germany

This impressive art museum lies at the northern extremity of the Hofgarten, close to the Rhine. While its excellent permanent collection that is particularly strong in modern art (especially German Expressionism) is not on view until spring 2023 due to renovations, the museum is hosting interesting temporary exhibitions focusing on modern and contemporary art, photography, and music.

This museum is dedicated to art from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. Its American pop-art collection (including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, and Roy Lichtenstein) rivals that of many American museums. It is also home to the third-largest Picasso collection in the world, something one might not expect to find in Cologne.

A treasure house of medieval art from the Rhine region, the museum has an ideal setting in a 12th-century basilica. Don't miss the crucifix from the St. Georg Kirche or the original stained-glass windows and carved figures from the Dom. Other exhibits include intricately carved ivory book covers, rock-crystal reliquaries, and illuminated manuscripts.

Museum Wiesbaden offers a heady mix of nature and culture. The natural history section exhibits a wealth of geological finds and preserved animals, and the art collection ranges from 12th-century polychromes to present-day installations. The museum is best known for its expressionist paintings, particularly the works of Russian artist Alexej Jawlensky, who lived in Wiesbaden for the last 20 years of his life.

Just outside Düsseldorf, the Düssel River forms a valley, called the Neanderthal, where the bones of a Stone Age relative of modern man were found. The impressive museum, built at the site of the discovery in the suburb of Mettmann, includes models of the original discovery, replicas of cave drawings, and life-size models of Neanderthal Man.

High above Rüdesheim and visible for miles stands Germania, a colossal female statue crowning the Niederwald Monument. This tribute to German nationalism was built between 1877 and 1883 to commemorate the rebirth of the German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). Germania faces across the Rhine toward its eternal enemy, France. At her base are the words to a stirring patriotic song: "Dear Fatherland rest peacefully! Fast and true stands the watch, the watch on the Rhine!" There are splendid panoramic views from the monument and from other vantage points on the edge of the forested plateau. You can reach the monument on foot, by car (via Grabenstrasse), or over the vineyards in the Seilbahn (cable car). There's also a Sessellift (chairlift) to and from Assmannshausen, a red-wine enclave, on the other side of the hill; a "Ring-ticket" will take you from the Old Town to Niederwald by cable car, from Niederwald to Assmannshausen by chairlift, and back to Rüdesheim by boat. Allow three to four hours for the trip.

The 55-km (34-mile) drive from Bernkastel to Trier takes in another series of outstanding hillside vineyards, including the Brauneberg, 10 km (6 miles) upstream from Bernkastel. On the opposite side of the river is the Paulinshof, where Thomas Jefferson was impressed by a 1783 Brauneberger Kammer Auslese during his visit here in 1788. You can sample contemporary vintages of this wine in the beautiful chapel on the estate grounds with suggestions from the friendly staff.

A fortresslike tower on a hill, the Roman Catholic 'white church' of St. Martin has beautifully painted vaulting and a magnificent baroque altar.

On a magnificent loop 12 km (7½ miles) southwest of Brauneberg stands the famous village of Piesport, whose steep, slate cliff is known as the Loreley of the Mosel. The village puts on a fireworks display for its Loreleyfest the first weekend in July. Wines from its 35 vineyards are collectively known as Piesporter Michelsberg. The finest individual vineyard site, and one of Germany's very best, is the Goldtröpfchen (little droplets of gold).

This former electors' palace, built in the baroque style between 1715 and 1753, now houses the university's mineralogical collection. Its botanical gardens are home to 12,000 species, among the largest variety in Germany.

Aachen's town hall sits behind the Dom, across Katschhof Square. It was built in the early 14th century on the site of the Aula Regia, or "great hall," of Charlemagne's palace. Its first major official function was the coronation banquet of Emperor Karl IV in 1349, held in the great Gothic hall you can still see today (though this was largely rebuilt after World War II). On the north wall of the building are statues of 50 emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. The greatest of them all, Charlemagne, stands in bronze atop the Karlsbrunnen in the center of the market square.

The 15-minute walk to this 1,000-year-old castle overlooking the town will reward you with great views of the area. English guided tours lasting 40 minutes take place daily at noon and 3 pm throughout the summer; check the website for tours during the winter months. During the first week of August, there's a medieval festival including colorful tournaments. Regular medieval banquets are available with advance booking only. These take place in German but with English translation sheets to accompany the feasting and merriment; the price includes a castle tour.

Traffic is routed away from the river and underneath this mile-long pedestrian strip, which stretches from the Altstadt south to MedienHafen. The shady upper level is popular with joggers, cyclists, and casual strollers, while the lower level along the Rhine's banks is packed with buzzy cafés.

The forested plateau of the Rochusberg (St. Roch Hill) is the pretty setting of the Rochuskapelle. Originally built in 1666 to celebrate the end of the plague, it has been rebuilt twice. On August 16, 1814, Goethe attended the consecration festivities, the forerunner of today's Rochusfest, a weeklong folk festival in mid-August. The chapel (open only for services) contains an altar dedicated to St. Hildegard and relics and furnishings from the convents she founded on the Ruppertsberg (in the suburb of Bingerbrück) and in Eibingen (east of Rüdesheim).

The Roman garrison (Römer-Kastell) Bodobrica, established here in the 4th century, was enclosed by a 26-foot-high rectangular wall (1,010 by 505 feet) with 28 defense towers. You can see portions of these in a fascinating open-air archaeological park.

While this archeological museum is closed for renovations until 2026, a selection of important treasures from its collection of ancient Roman artifacts is on view in the Belgian House, near the Neumarkt Galerie shopping mall. Among them are tombstones and busts from the 1st century, ancient glass vessels decorated with the trademark “Cologne Squiggle,” and everyday objects from Roman life. Placards are in both German and English.

For a look at 19th- and 20th-century rural life in the Mosel-Saar area, visit this hilltop Freilichtmuseum (open-air museum) near Konz-Saar, 10 km (6 miles) southwest of Trier via B-51. Numerous farmhouses and typical village buildings in the region were saved from the wrecking ball by being dismantled and brought to the Roscheider Hof, where they were rebuilt and refurnished as they appeared decades ago. Old schoolrooms, a barbershop and beauty salon, a tavern, a shoemaker's workshop, a pharmacy, a grocery, and a dentist's office have been set up in the rooms of the museum proper, along with period rooms and exhibitions on local trades and household work, such as the history of laundry. In addition to a large collection of tin figures, there's also a Biedermeier rose garden, a museum shop, and a restaurant with a beer garden (closed Monday) on the grounds.

This castle and the magnificent pleasure park that surrounds it were created in the time of Prince Clemens August, between 1725 and 1768. The palace contains one of the most famous achievements of rococo architecture, a staircase by Balthasar Neumann. The castle can be visited only on guided tours, which leave the reception area every hour or so. An English-language recorded tour is available.

At the far-east edge of the Hofgarten, this baroque pink structure houses the Goethe-Museum, featuring original manuscripts, first editions, personal correspondence, and other memorabilia of Germany's greatest writer. A collection of Meissen porcelain, the Sammlung Ernst Schneider Collection, is also here.

On the outskirts of Koblenz, the neo-Gothic towers of Schloss Stolzenfels come into view. The castle's origins date to the mid-13th century, when the archbishop of Trier sought to counter the influence (and toll rights) of the archbishop of Mainz, who had just built Burg Lahneck, a castle at the confluence of the Lahn and Rhine rivers. Its superbly furnished period rooms and beautiful gardens are well worth a visit. From B-9 (curbside parking) it's about a 15-minute walk to the castle entrance.

A squat tower is all that remains of the palace built by the Berg family, which ruled Düsseldorf for more than five centuries. The tower also houses the SchifffahrtMuseum, which charts 2,000 years of Rhine boatbuilding and navigation.

This riverside museum south of the cathedral is a real hit. It recounts 3,000 years of civilization's production and enjoyment of chocolate, from the Central American Maya to the colonizing and industrializing Europeans. It's also a real factory, with lava flows of chocolate and a conveyer belt jostling thousands of truffles. The museum shop, with a huge variety of chocolate items, does a brisk business, and the riverside panorama café serves some of the best cake in town.

Königswinter's huge aquarium features 2,000 creatures from the sea. The biggest pool has a glass tunnel that enables you to walk on the "bottom of the sea." Order tickets online, which includes a necessary time-slot reservation.

Excavations in the 1960s revealed ancient Roman baths beneath the twin-tower, Romanesque Severuskirche on the market square. The large triumphal crucifix over the main altar and a lovely statue of a smiling Madonna date from the 13th century.

It was in this sturdy Romanesque basilica, consecrated in 836, that plans were drawn for the Treaty of Verdun a few years later, formalizing the division of Charlemagne's great empire and leading to the creation of Germany and France as separate states. Inside Koblenz's oldest church, compare the squat Romanesque columns in the nave with the intricate fan vaulting of the Gothic sections. The St. Kastor Fountain outside the church is an intriguing piece of historical one-upmanship. It was built by the occupying French to mark the beginning of Napoléon's ultimately disastrous Russian campaign of 1812.

This Gothic church is near the palace tower on Carlsplatz. Its spire became distorted because unseasoned wood was used in its construction. The Vatican elevated the 14th-century brick church to a basilica minor (small cathedral) in 1974 in recognition of its role in church history. Built in the 13th century, with additions from 1394, St. Lambertus contains the tomb of William the Rich and a graceful late-Gothic tabernacle.

The massive tower in the center of town belongs to the parish church of St. Peter. A good example of the transition from Romanesque to Gothic styles, it has an impressive four-story nave.

The Renaissance philosopher and theologian Nikolaus Cusanus (1401–64) was born in Kues. The St.-Nikolaus-Hospital is a charitable Stiftung (foundation) he established in 1458, famous for his library that contains more than 300 handwritten manuscripts from the 9th through 15th centuries, and it still operates today as a home for the elderly and a wine estate.