Duisburg Germany North Rhine-Westphalia
Frequently Asked Questions
Depending on the line, along the Rhine or near the centre by the Innenhafen, the old inner harbour. Duisburg spreads across the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr, around Europe's largest inland port.
Yes, and it makes no apology for it: cranes, silos and docks as far as you can see form the first impression. But anyone expecting a grey day is mistaken. Duisburg has become one of the most compelling examples of industrial reinvention in Europe.
The old inner harbour a few minutes from the centre, which served for a century as the region's granary: grain was unloaded into tall brick mills lined up along the water. Those buildings now hold restaurants, offices and cultural institutions.
A museum housed in a former mill at the Innenhafen, topped with contemporary architecture, showing an important collection of postwar German art. The neighbouring city history museum tells the story of coal, steel and the river.
The highlight of the call: across 180 hectares a few kilometres north of the centre, a former steelworks shut down in 1985 has been given back to the public and to nature. You climb a blast furnace by metal stairs to look out over the whole Ruhr basin, among giant pipes, chimneys and rusting halls colonised by birches and butterflies.
By tram or taxi from the centre. Entry to the park is free, a marked circuit of about six kilometres links the highlights, and the place fascinates photographers and families alike. A former gasometer even houses an indoor diving site, and the ore bunkers have become alpine gardens.
A monumental sculpture shaped like a rollercoaster, south of the city, which you walk along on foot, set on a former slag heap and lit at night. It is a curiosity worth the detour for anyone drawn to urban art.
The Lehmbruck Museum and its remarkable set of modern sculpture in a glass pavilion, the Gothic-looking Salvator church, and the humorous fountain dedicated to the local writer who invented the television detective Schimanski.
The bargemen's quarter on the Rhine, with its 19th-century facades and its museum of inland navigation. It recalls that generations of families lived here to the rhythm of the barges. Watching the convoys pass from the bank remains the best way to catch the soul of the city.
The euro and German. This is a large Ruhr city where English is spoken in museums and hotels, less so in neighbourhood shops. Cards work almost everywhere, but keep a few euros for trams and cafés.
