Street & Urban Art

The route now leads you through the Sechzigviertel district and across Liebigstraße from Nippes towards Ehrenfeld, the heartland of Cologne’s street-art scene. This is where the first City Leaks urban art festival was held in 2011. The festival has been held at two-year intervals ever since. It has gradually extended its scope, giving selected street artists from Germany and abroad the opportunity to decorate house facades all over the city. The cycling route takes you past some of their works. The festival’s headquarter is located in Hüttenstraße in 2021. It’s worthwhile to get off your bike at this point, pushing it along and taking a look at the new art projects in the making. It’s also a good idea to take an additional spin along Lichtstraße, walk along Heliosstraße and spend some time on Gerhard-Wilczek-Platz. This is where the Café Goldmund has a lovely little beer garden. You can also treat yourself to a delicious ice cream at the Eisfeld café next door.

The Ehrenfeld railway station, and its railway embankment in particular, are absolute hotspots for street art. And you’re sure to notice that Ehrenfeld offers an almost unlimited array of culinary delights. You‘re sure to find something to suit every taste, especially along Venloer Straße. As you look for a small café or an exceptional restaurant, you’ll be rewarded if you explore the side streets or make a detour to Lenauplatz.

Next, take Vogelsanger Straße and then Venloer Straße through the inner-city green belt and enter the Belgian Quarter. Here too, some of the motifs of this neighbourhood’s murals can be traced back to the City Leaks festivals. Others were created on the artists’ own initiative. This is especially evident around Brüsseler Platz and along Brüsseler Straße. Here, as well as on Aachener Straße, you can find a rich array of small retail shops, restaurants, cafés and bars. Among them is the distinctive hostel "die wohngemeinschaft", which is not only bicycle-friendly accommodation but also invites you to linger in the bar and its outdoor terrace. In this area you have the option of ending your cycling tour, getting off your bike, strolling around and letting the day wind down. The shortest route back to the city centre and Cologne Cathedral is to follow Ehrenstraße.

But if you’d like to take a close look at a further series of artworks, make a detour through the student district and the Südstadt district. In the student district, or Quartier Lateng (“Kölsch” for “Latin Quarter”), you’ll mainly find street art around Zülpicher Straße, while in the Südstadt you’ll in particular come across two huge murals at the Rheinauhafen district. You can round off your tour by cycling along the Rhine back to Cologne Cathedral.

Here you will find a table with the locations of street and urban artworks in Cologne.

You can download the GPX file here: Street & Urban Art.