Choose wisely. Connect locally.Add your business 
Düsseldorf is the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, the second largest city of the state and the seventh largest in Germany, with 619,444 people in 2025. It lies on the Rhine where the small Düssel flows in, and it is known for fashion, art, Altbier and a large Japanese community.
First mentioned in the 12th century, the village received town rights on 14 August 1288 after the Battle of Worringen and grew as the seat of the Dukes of Berg and later the Electors Palatine. It became the state capital in 1946, and its art academy, whose members include Joseph Beuys, made it a centre of modern art.
Visitors walk through the Altstadt to the Burgplatz and the Rhine, ride up the Rheinturm, see Gehry's buildings in the Media Harbour and stroll along the Königsallee. Benrath Palace and the ruins at Kaiserswerth make good trips to the edges of the city.
The Düsseldorf Altstadt, the old town on the Rhine, covers less than half a square kilometre yet has more than 300 bars and clubs, which earned it the name longest bar in the world. Four of the city's five Altbier brewpubs are here, along with the Basilica of St. Lambertus.
The Burgplatz is the square on the site of Düsseldorf Castle, built in 1260 at the mouth of the Düssel and burned in 1872. Only its tower, the Schlossturm, survives, with lower storeys from the 13th century and a shipping museum inside, and the Cartwheeler's Fountain of 1954 stands nearby.
The Church of St. Andreas was built from 1622 to 1629 for the Jesuits in the South German Baroque style and became the court church of the Counts Palatine of Neuburg in 1708. Its mausoleum holds the tomb of the Elector Johann Wilhelm, and Dominican friars now serve the church.
The Kaiserpfalz Kaiserswerth is the ruin of an imperial palace on the Rhine that grew from a monastery founded by Saint Suitbert around 700. The young Henry IV was abducted here in 1062, and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa moved the Rhine toll here in 1174 and had it fortified.
The Rheinturm is a telecommunications tower 240.5 metres high, built from 1979 to 1981 and the tallest structure in Düsseldorf. It has a revolving restaurant and an observation deck at 168 metres, and the lights on its shaft form the Lichtzeitpegel, the largest digital clock in the world.
The Neuer Zollhof is a group of three buildings by Frank O. Gehry in the Media Harbour, completed in 1998, whose curving, leaning walls are clad in white plaster, red brick and stainless steel. The tallest is 14 storeys high, and the ensemble is a prominent landmark popular with tourists.
The Media Harbour is the redeveloped part of the Düsseldorf docks next to Unterbilk, where media, advertising, design and fashion firms have moved in since the 1990s. The broadcaster WDR has a studio here, and the quarter runs right up to the Rheinturm and the state parliament.
The Königsallee, known as the Kö, is a boulevard about 1 kilometre long and 80 metres wide, with a canal fed by the Düssel down its middle. It runs south from the Hofgarten, and its eastern side is lined with flagship stores and arcades, making it one of Germany's busiest luxury shopping streets.
Benrath Palace is a pleasure palace built from 1755 to 1770 by Nicolas de Pigage for the Elector Palatine Charles Theodor. Its main building is flanked by curved wings around a round pond, with a long mirror pond to the south, and the wings house museums of garden art and natural history.
Schloss Jägerhof is a hunting lodge built from 1752 to 1763 for the Prince-elector Karl Theodor, then outside the city gates, and it closes the view along the riding avenue of the Hofgarten. Since 1987 it has housed the Goethe-Museum and the Ernst Schneider Foundation.
The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, founded by the state in 1961, shows 20th-century and recent art in the K20 on Grabbeplatz, with its black granite front of 1986, and the K21 in the Ständehaus. It holds about 100 works by Paul Klee and major pieces by Picasso, Matisse and Mondrian.
The Kunstpalast, formerly the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, grew from the collection of the art academy founded in 1710, with gifts from Elector Jan Wellem and Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici. The first Kunstpalast at the Ehrenhof was built in 1902, and the museum opened in its present form in 1913.
No reviews yet. Been to Düsseldorf? Be the first to share your experience.
Share what you loved, what to skip and tips for other travelers.
Log in to write a reviewBeen to Düsseldorf? Add your best shots to the gallery.
Log in to add photosPhoto: Anil Öztas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Anıl Öztaş, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Alice Wiegand, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Michielverbeek, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Wolfgang Pehlemann Wiesbaden Germany, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Frank Vincentz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Frank Vincentz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Anıl Öztaş, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: CurrenciesNow, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Till Niermann, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Beckstet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Beckstet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Beckstet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Bodoklecksel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Островский Александр, Киев, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Островский Александр, Киев, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Островский Александр, Киев, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Alupus, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Julien Bertrand, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: Frank Vincentz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Frank Vincentz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Frank Vincentz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Островский Александр, Киев, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Hermann Luyken, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Hermann Luyken, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Hermann Luyken, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Hermann Luyken, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Elgoph, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Photo: Kürschner (talk) 17:02, 18 January 2024 (UTC), Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Stöhrfall (talk) 18:38, 8 August 2010 (UTC), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: A.Savin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Frank Vincentz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: User:Dayana777, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Kabaeh49, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Jörg Wiegels, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: perlblau, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: perlblau, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Photo: perlblau, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Photo: perlblau, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Photo: Raimond Spekking, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Fred Romero from Paris, France, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Raimond Spekking, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Paul Hermans, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Kürschner (talk) 08:35, 15 April 2024 (UTC), Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Raimond Spekking, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
