Discover Duisburg

Experience art and see the city from new perspectives

Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain is at once a walk-through work of art, a viewpoint and a landmark. Visitors can walk along its curves and inclines. This means the sculpture is not just viewed, but experienced while walking along it. In the evening, 880 LEDs light up, and Tiger & Turtle appears as a light sculpture. If you want to discover Duisburg’s outdoor art, you can plan this visit as a separate activity and distinguish between visiting during the day and seeing it in the evening when planning your trip.

The sculpture park around the Lehmbruck Museum offers another opportunity to experience art outdoors. More than 40 works by international artists are freely accessible across seven hectares. Inside the museum, the collection of the MKM Museum Küppersmühle for Modern Art focuses on painting. It is one of the most comprehensive and significant collections of German and European post-war art. The sculpture park and the collection offer different emphases: one features works outdoors, while the other focuses on painting and post-war art.

Inland shipping and routes by the water

The Museum of German Inland Navigation in Duisburg-Ruhrort is devoted to shipping on inland waterways. Its collection ranges from dugout canoes to container ships, offering a broad view of the technological history of inland shipping. The museum ships “Oscar Huber”, “Minden” and “Fendel 147” are moored at the museum’s harbour basin and bring this history to life. The museum is also an interesting point of reference for cycle tourists: the Rhine Cycle Route runs through Duisburg, and the Museum of German Inland Navigation is directly alongside the route.

At Duisburg’s Inner Harbour, you can take a walk along the marina. This offers a different way to experience the city by the water than exploring ships and their technological history in Ruhrort. If you want to include both cycling and city walks in your trip planning, these are two different ideas for your stay; they do not automatically form a single route.

Industrial heritage at Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord

At Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, you can learn about former industrial facilities from several perspectives. An industrial heritage trail passes industrial ruins and explains their former roles in steel production. This means the focus is not only on the structures themselves, but also on their industrial use. The decommissioned blast furnace now serves as a viewpoint with far-reaching views.

There are also activities with a more active focus: visitors can climb in the casting hall and bunkers, and dive in the gasometer. These activities are quite different from a tour focused on the former steel production. So, if you want to explore Duisburg’s industrial heritage, you can choose according to whether you are most interested in the history of the facilities, the view from the blast furnace or the activities mentioned above.

An outing with something for children too

Duisburg Zoo is home to more than 5,000 animals from around the world. The areas and activities mentioned include spacious outdoor enclosures, a petting zoo, playgrounds, a pirate ship and a low ropes course. So, alongside the animals, the grounds also offer several different places to play and explore. Families can treat a zoo visit as a focus in its own right, separate from the city’s art and industrial experiences.

These different interests may help you choose a holiday apartment: would you like to discover Duisburg mainly through its art and museums, explore inland shipping, experience industrial history at Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord or spend time at the zoo? The destinations featured here offer different ideas for your trip; choose your accommodation to suit the aspects of Duisburg that interest you most during your stay.

More destination pages: Mülheim an der Ruhr, Remscheid, Herne, Essen, Oberhausen, Bochum, Solingen and Mönchengladbach.

Back to the main travel overview: North Rhine-Westphalia.