Germany · Nordrhein-Westfalen · Köln
Riehl, Köln — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Riehl is a district in the north of Köln on the left bank of the Rhine, home to the Cologne Zoological Garden and the Flora.
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Where to stay in Riehl
How the choice of base plays out on the ground.
Carl Rehorst planned Riehl as a garden city in 1914. His curving streets still shape the district. Between the botanical garden and the Riehler Gürtel, more than 110 houses were built from 1919 to 1925 for British officers.
They became a villa quarter that has kept its upmarket garden-city character.
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Things to do in and around Köln
Ranked by global recognition; descriptions from Wikidata (CC0).
Churches & Religious Sites
3- St. Engelbert Heritage parish church
- St Anne's Church church of Riehler Heimstätten
- Stephanuskirche protestant church building in Cologne
Parks & Gardens
1- Flora und Botanischer Garten Köln Heritage Cologne Botanical Garden
worth knowingacross 2 categories in and around Köln
About Riehl
What are the main landmarks in Riehl?
The Cologne Zoological Garden, open since 1860, covers 20 hectares, four times its first size. Its aquarium is the Cologne Zoo Aquarium. The Flora und Botanischer Garten Köln joins Peter Joseph Lenné's garden of 1864 with the botanical garden, linked to it in 1920, and its palm house of 1863 echoes London's Crystal Palace.
St. Engelbert, built in 1931 by Dominikus Böhm, counts as Cologne's first modern church building. Its roof earned it the nickname Zitronenpresse. The Stephanuskirche, St Anne's Church of the Riehler Heimstätten and the Kreuzkapelle Riehl add to the churches, and the Mülheim Bridge and the Cologne Cable Car reach the district.
What is the history of Riehl?
Riehl was first recorded in 972 and stayed a rural settlement until the late 19th century. In 1357 the archbishop of Cologne, the Duke of Jülich and the cities of Köln and Aachen agreed to strike a shared silver coin at the Burg Riehl, until a flood damaged the castle in 1464. Riehl became Prussian in 1814.
It was incorporated into Köln together with Nippes on 1 April 1888. From the mid-19th century its Rhine bank became the city's pleasure quarter, the Goldene Ecke, and from 1818 the Prussian army drilled on the Mülheimer Heide, where Governor Ludwig von Cranach had black poplars planted as a bullet-stop in 1878, the green still called the Cranach-Wäldchen.
Where is Riehl?
Riehl lies in the north of Köln on the left bank of the Rhine and covers about 2.4 square kilometres. The Innere Kanalstraße bounds it to the south, the Rhine to the east, the Gürtelbahn tram line to the north and the Amsterdamer Straße to the west. Its neighbours are Neustadt-Nord, Nippes and Niehl.
More than a quarter of its area is parks and green space.
Common questions
What is the best area to stay in Riehl?
The villa quarter by the Riehler Gürtel: travellers who want a leafy, upmarket residential street.
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Updated October 2026