Tourismus NRW e.V.
The inner courtyard of Dalheim Monastery, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Cul­ture in North Rhine-West­phalia

Your dis­cov­ery

World-class mu­seums and out­stand­ing con­cert halls draw vis­it­ors with great art, dance halls and stages set fu­ture trends, and the in­dus­tri­al her­it­age has roots as deep as those in the majest­ic parks and gar­dens. Feel the cul­ture in North Rhine-West­phalia. You’ll be amazed what you can dis­cov­er.

Cul­ture pure

World-class mu­seums and out­stand­ing con­cert halls draw vis­it­ors with great art, dance halls and stages set fu­ture trends, and the in­dus­tri­al her­it­age has roots as deep as those in the majest­ic parks and gar­dens. Feel the cul­ture in North Rhine-West­phalia. You’ll be amazed what you can dis­cov­er.

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Marta Herford in Herford, exterior view from above, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Mu­seums

Over 1.000 mu­seums in North Rhine-West­phalia await curi­ous vis­it­ors. Dis­cov­er the most pop­u­lar and im­press­ive es­tab­lish­ments with their unique, high-qual­ity ex­hib­i­tions.
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Nina Hüpen-Bestendonk
Works of art in the K21, © Nina Hüpen-Bestendonk

Top-Ex­hib­i­tions 2024

In North Rhine-West­phali­a's mu­seums lots of dif­fer­ent ex­hib­i­tions open their doors through­out the year.
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Johannes Höhn
Beuys mural on a house wall near the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, © Johannes Höhn

Beuys & Bike

Joseph Beuys set the art world in mo­tion. On his 100th birth­day, a new cycle route is fol­low­ing in his foot­steps through the far west of Ger­many.
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Tourismus NRW e.V.
Altena castle, aerial view, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Palaces & Castles

Dis­cov­er the im­pos­ing palaces and castles in the Kul­tur­land, which tell ex­cit­ing stor­ies from a wide range of epochs.
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André Menne, Peter Wieler
The Augustusburg and Falkenlust palaces in Brühl are two of Germany’s most important examples of Baroque and Rococo architecture., © André Menne, Peter Wieler

UN­ESCO World Her­it­age

There are six UN­ESCO World Her­it­age Sites in North Rhine-West­phalia. The Lower Ger­man­ic Limes has also been al­lowed to bear the title since 2021.
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Mies van der Rohe Business Park 2018
Mies van der Rohe, Verseidag, Krefeld, © Mies van der Rohe Business Park 2018

Bauhaus

In the high pop­u­la­tion cit­ies, which at that time were un­der­go­ing a peri­od of ex­pan­sion, the Bauhaus concept and its pre­lim­in­ary and branch move­ments, as well as the de­vel­op­ments that came after it, made a stronger im­pact on ar­chi­tec­ture and urb­an build­ing than in al­most any oth­er fed­er­al state in Ger­many.
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Tourismus NRW e.V.
Ruhrgebiet Duisburg Landschaftspark , © Tourismus NRW e.V.

In­dus­tri­al her­it­age of NRW

Back­drops for art, cul­ture and the cre­at­ive sec­tor The in­dus­tri­al her­it­age of North Rhine-West­phalia is huge: no oth­er fed­er­al state has such an abund­ance and vari­ety of in­dus­tri­al monu­ments. Themed routes lead across the coun­try to mines, gas­o­met­ers, cok­ing plants, blast fur­naces, pro­duc­tion fa­cil­it­ies and lifts.
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Johannes Höhn
Nordkirchen Park Münsterland Castle, © Johannes Höhn

Parks and Gar­dens in NRW

Castles and roy­al res­id­ences sur­roun­ded by ex­cep­tion­al land­scap­ing In NRW, the gar­dens of baroque castles, the parks of majest­ic roy­al res­id­ences and the green oases of garden­ing ex­hib­i­tions from the past of­fer ample op­por­tun­ity for pleas­ant strolls. Every re­gion of NRW has its own ex­ample of out­stand­ing land­scape ar­chi­tec­ture or garden design. More un­usu­al and exot­ic sur­prises also await, in­clud­ing a botan­ic­al garden with a 1.80 metre-high flower­ing plant, sculp­ture parks and ori­ent­al gar­dens.
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Tobias Kruse
Rheinauhafen Köln, © Tobias Kruse

Ar­chi­tec­ture

North Rhine-West­pah­lia is a real para­dise for fans of ar­chi­tec­ture and pho­to­graph­ers alike. Well-known ar­chi­tects such as Frank Gehry, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Lud­wig Mies van der Rohe or Balthas­ar Neu­mann have all left their traces here, and en­riched the cit­ies in the fed­er­al state with their some­times ex­tra­vag­ant, some­times min­im­al­ist­ic, some­times lav­ish build­ings. Come and ad­mire the Baroque mas­ter build­ings, clas­sic­al spa ar­chi­tec­ture and fu­tur­ist­ic con­tem­por­ary struc­tures!
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Johannes Höhn
Today a theater hall for concerts in the Duisburg-Nord landscape park, © Johannes Höhn

Fest­ivals in North Rhine-West­phalia

Mu­sic, theatre and lit­er­at­ure Fest­iv­al in NRW are ever-present, in­ter­na­tion­al and up to date. Mu­sic, theat­er and lit­er­at­ure are cel­eb­rated in an un­con­ven­tion­al and straight­for­ward man­ner.
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Persona Jörg Albrecht, © Ralph Sondermann