Essen & the Ruhr

Once the coal-and-steel heart of Europe, where the UNESCO-listed Zollverein Coal Mine, Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord and Dortmund's football museum line up along the Route of Industrial Heritage.

Essen is the central city of the Ruhr in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of about 580,000. The Ruhr is a continuous urban area of more than ten cities — including Essen, Duisburg, Dortmund, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen and Oberhausen — with around 5 million people. In the 19th and 20th centuries it was Europe's largest coal and steel region, and the Krupp dynasty got its start in Essen. After the mines and steelworks shut down, blast furnaces, mine shafts, gasometers and spoil heaps were turned into museums, parks, exhibition spaces and viewpoints, linked by the roughly 400 km Route of Industrial Heritage; in 2010 Essen was European Capital of Culture on behalf of the Ruhr. Highlights: the UNESCO-listed Zollverein Coal Mine with the Ruhr Museum and the Red Dot Design Museum; the illuminated blast furnaces and inland harbour of Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord; major exhibitions in the Gasometer Oberhausen; the German Mining Museum in Bochum; and the German Football Museum and Westfalenstadion in Dortmund. Southern Essen offers a completely different landscape from the industrial north, with the Krupps' Villa Hügel and Lake Baldeney. The climate is mild, best Apr–Oct, and summer brings events such as the Ruhrtriennale and the ExtraSchicht night of industrial culture. Transport: Düsseldorf Airport is about 30 km from Essen, and ICE trains connect to Cologne, Frankfurt and Berlin; the region has a dense network of S-Bahn, U-Bahn and tram lines, and a VRR regional day ticket covers it all. Plan on 2–3 days; football fans can time their visit to the Bundesliga fixtures.

Top sights

• Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex – A World Heritage Site where the Bauhaus-style Shaft 12 is hailed as the “world's most beautiful coal mine” and a symbol of the Ruhr's indus…
• Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord – A landscape park converted from an abandoned steelworks. Climb a blast furnace for views, and at night colored lights turn the furnaces int…
• Gasometer Oberhausen – One of Europe's tallest exhibition spaces. Inside a 117-metre-tall former gas holder, spectacular large-scale nature and art exhibitions ar…
• German Mining Museum – One of the world's largest mining museums. Descend into a replica underground mine tunnel, then climb the green headframe for views over Bo…
• Signal Iduna Park (Westfalenstadion) – Home of Borussia Dortmund and Germany's largest football stadium. The south stand, known as the “Yellow Wall,” holds about 25,000 standing…
• Ruhr Museum – A regional museum housed in a former coal preparation plant at Zollverein, reached by a long external escalator glowing orange, and telling…
• Red Dot Design Museum – A design museum converted from the former boiler house of Zollverein Coal Mine, redesigned by Norman Foster and showing more than two thous…
• German Football Museum – A national football museum opposite Dortmund Central Station, featuring the stories of Germany's four World Cup titles and interactive expe…
• Villa Hügel – The lavish residence of the Krupp family, with 269 rooms overlooking Lake Baldeney and presenting the history of the steel dynasty.
• Museum Folkwang – One of Germany's leading art museums, with masterpieces by Cézanne, van Gogh, Gauguin, and German Expressionists, and free admission to its…
• Lake Baldeney – A reservoir on the Ruhr River south of Essen, with a 14 km lakeside walking and cycling path, excursion boats, sailing, and lakeside swimmi…
• Essen Minster – A church founded as a noble abbey in the 9th century, home to the Golden Madonna, the world's oldest surviving full-length statue of the Vi…
• Old Synagogue (Essen) – Completed in 1913, one of Germany's largest synagogues. It survived the arson of Kristallnacht and now houses a Jewish cultural centre.
• Grugapark – A large botanical park of about 70 hectares, with greenhouses, gardens, animal areas and open-air concerts.
• Margarethenhöhe – A garden city built by the Krupp family for its workers, with fairy-tale gabled cottages and well-preserved stone-paved squares.
• Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain – A walk-through steel sculpture on the slag heap at Duisburg that looks like a roller-coaster track. Visitors can climb the steel stairs alo…
• Duisburg Inner Harbour – A waterfront district converted from old grain warehouses and quays, lined with restaurants, museums, and yacht marinas. You can also take…
• Museum Küppersmühle – A contemporary art museum in a former flour mill at the Inner Harbour, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, with a collection of postwar German…
• Starlight Express Bochum – A roller-skating musical that has played continuously since 1988 in its own dedicated theatre in Bochum, a record-setting long-runner.
• Jahrhunderthalle Bochum – A steel exhibition hall dating from 1902, now a performance venue and the main stage of the Ruhr Triennale. The nearby Westpark industrial…
• Zollern Colliery (LWL Industrial Museum) – An Art Nouveau colliery known as the 'Castle of Labour.' Its machine hall entrance has splendid Art Nouveau glass doors.
• Dortmunder U – A former brewery tower topped with a giant glowing letter 'U', now an arts and creative centre that houses the Museum Ostwall.
• ZOOM Erlebniswelt Gelsenkirchen – An immersive zoo arranged around three continental themes, Alaska, Africa, and Asia, with a boat ride through the African section.
• Veltins-Arena – The home stadium of Schalke 04, with a retractable roof and a pitch that slides out of the stadium. Fans can join guided tours.
• Tetraeder Bottrop – A 60-metre steel-tube tetrahedron observation structure atop a slag heap, with suspended stairs climbing through three viewing platforms ov…
• Halde Hoheward & Horizon Observatory – The largest slag heap landscape park in the Ruhr. Two giant steel arches on the summit form the Horizon Observatory, a great spot to watch…
• Movie Park Germany – A film-themed amusement park on the northern outskirts of Bottrop, with roller coasters, a Nickelodeon zone, and a Halloween horror event.
• Henrichshütte Hattingen – A century-old steelworks museum in the Ruhr Valley. Climb the oldest blast furnace in the Ruhr and follow the Iron Trail to learn how steel…
• Werden Abbey – A Benedictine abbey founded by St. Ludger around 799, with the Romanesque St. Ludger's Cathedral and treasury. The old town of Werden is ch…

Where to eat

• Zum Xaver – A long-running fries snack bar in Essen’s Holsterhausen district, serving grilled chicken and curry sausage for decades…
• Casino Zollverein – A restaurant in the old compressor hall of the UNESCO-listed Zollverein Coal Mine, serving traditional Ruhr dishes with…
• Müllers auf der Rue – A market-hall-style bistro on Rüttenscheider Straße, Essen’s busiest dining street, opened by TV chef Nelson Müller. It…
• Gasthaus Alte Fähre – A century-old inn on the Ruhr in Kettwig, with a riverside beer garden overlooking the old town and hearty German home-…
• Restaurant Hannappel – A one-Michelin-star restaurant in Essen's Horst district. Chef Tobias Weyers serves four- or six-course seasonal menus…
• Kettner's Kamota – A one-Michelin-star restaurant in Werden's old town, serving “New Austrian” cuisine with Asian influences, alongside pu…

Itineraries

• Ruhr Industrial Heritage Route – Based in Essen, take regional trains to explore coal mines, blast furnaces, mining museums, and football culture.