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Melatenfriedhof, Cologne

Melatenfriedhof, Cologne: Our most recommended tours and activities

Cologne: The Melaten Cemetery, Life, Love and Death Tour

1. Cologne: The Melaten Cemetery, Life, Love and Death Tour

Wander through Melaten Cemetery in Cologne and see the tombs of the city's most prominent personalities on a walking tour. Immerse yourself in the tranquility and rich history of the large park with a guide. Discover a place of silence embedded in a beautiful park with incomparable flora and fauna in the middle of Cologne. Visit the Melaten cemetery and stroll through the complex, which has an area of over four hundred thousand square meters and around 55,000 gravesites. Enjoy moments of peace and quiet during the guided tour and experience how close love, death, and suffering as well as art culture are to each other. Learn interesting facts and curiosities about historical personalities and impressive tombs and monuments and visit the former "Leprosenanstalt".

Cologne: Melaten Cemetery Guided Tour - Famous Personalities

2. Cologne: Melaten Cemetery Guided Tour - Famous Personalities

Visit Cologne's time-honored celebrity cemetery and learn more about the former entrepreneurs, bankers, actors or politicians, who found their last resting place at Melaten Cemetery. Learn interesting details from the lives of many personalities, who were considered famous during their lifetime and many of whom are still well-known today. The central axis of the cemetery isn't called Million Avenue for nothing. Admire the different tombs, stroll through the park-like complex and enjoy this special place of quietness and remembering.

Cologne: Guided Tour of Melatenfriedhof

3. Cologne: Guided Tour of Melatenfriedhof

Take a trip through the history of Cologne on a guided tour of Melatenfriedhof, the central cemetery of the city. Before it became a cemetery, it was already an execution site and leprosy ward far outside the city walls. Follow your guide around the 5500 graves. Listen to stories about the history of the city, and the celebrities who have been laid to rest in this historical graveyard.

Cologne: Melaten Cemetery Celebrities and Curiosities

4. Cologne: Melaten Cemetery Celebrities and Curiosities

Melaten Cemetery, which is over two centuries old, is an oasis of peace and quiet in the midst of this vibrant metropolis. Start the tour at its old main entrance. Your local guide will give you a short history of the area, how it was a village for the leppers, a place of execution, and finally how it became a central cemetery. Then, get ready to explore the area. Marvel at its parklike design and find numerous impressive monuments and objects of traditional and contemporary art. Admire Classicist to Neo-Gothic and Neo-Baroque grave monuments, symbols and sculptures. Melaten Cemetery has about 55,000 graves. Walk along the main paths reserved for the wealthy known as the "Millionaires Alley". Discover curious stories about the prominent Cologne citizens buried here. The tour will end at the tomb of the architect of the graveyard.

Cologne: Melaten Cemetery Tour in German

5. Cologne: Melaten Cemetery Tour in German

Discover a place of peace, quietness and remembrance and visit the Melaten Cemetery (Melatenfriedhof) in Cologne. Created in the beginning of the 19th century, it is located on the former grounds of a leprosarium. Join a guided tour through the green oasis and marvel at the park-like area with pompous tombs and vaults as well as modestly or quaintly designed tombs. Listen to a piece of the city’s history during the walk in the cemetery and find out which famous personalities were laid to rest here. Learn more about the so-called “sponsorship tombs” and marvel at the cemetery chapel from the 13th century.

Other Sightseeing Options in Melatenfriedhof, Cologne

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What people are saying about Melatenfriedhof, Cologne

Overall rating

4.9 / 5

based on 1,351 reviews

A great tour despite the rain showers. The guide had a lot of facts about the individual graves or deceased and even some of the group could add something to certain things. Experienced guide who made this tour with a lot of heart, friendliness, some funny or sad anecdotes, but above all with a lot of knowledge. I would like to do it again. My husband and my family also really enjoyed it

Despite the bad weather, a wonderful experience thanks to Harry Kramer. We really enjoyed the two-hour tour of Melaten with him. It was interesting, entertaining, funny and sometimes a bit emotional. We will definitely be back. Thanks very much!

Great trip. Very interesting to hear about well known Cologne persons.

Sehr interessante und unterhaltsame Tour mit Petra, vielen Dank, top!!

Top event, very competent lady who conducted the tour