Cologne Südstadt on foot: 10 places between the Rhine and the old city wall

For anyone who has already seen the cathedral and the old town and wants more. And for people who live in Cologne and only come to the Südstadt for coffee or carnival. The route is flat and easy to cut short: trams stop at Chlodwigplatz and at the Ulrepforte.

Start at the Rhine. The Bayenturm was built around 1220 as the southern corner tower of the city wall. On 8 June 1262 the citizens of Cologne stormed the tower and took it from the archbishop. Since then people in Cologne say: whoever holds the tower holds the power. The tower was badly damaged in the Second World War and stood as a ruin for decades. Since 1994 it has been home to the FrauenMediaTurm, an archive on the history of the women's movement that goes back to the journalist Alice Schwarzer.

Follow the Ubierring and in a few minutes you reach Chlodwigplatz. The square is named after Clovis, king of the Franks, and it is something like the living room of the Südstadt. The ring road, Severinstrasse and Bonner Strasse all meet here, and this is where the big carnival parade traditionally sets off on Rose Monday.

The gate in the middle of the square dates from the first half of the 13th century. It is one of only four city gates left from medieval Cologne. In 1235 Isabella of England, the bride of Emperor Frederick II, was welcomed here. Today you can get married inside the gate. And every year at the start of street carnival the story of Jan and Griet is acted out in front of it: the farmhand Jan von Werth, turned down by the maid Griet, who later came back as a general.

Walk through the gate into Severinstrasse. It follows a Roman road to Bonn, and the Romans buried their dead along it. A small chapel was built on this burial ground in the 4th century. It grew into St Severin, one of the twelve great Romanesque churches of Cologne, named after the third bishop of the city. Its west tower is 79 metres high, the tallest of all the Romanesque churches in Cologne.

A little further up Severinstrasse, on Karl-Berbuer-Platz, there is a ship made of bronze. The sculptor Bonifatius Stirnberg built it in 1987 as a ship of fools. At the helm stands Karl Berbuer himself, the singer of the carnival classic «Heidewitzka, Herr Kapitän». Mother Colonia sits at the bow, and two Heinzelmännchen, the helpful house gnomes of Cologne legend, tumble down the stairs. The titles of his songs are written around the basin.

A few streets to the west it suddenly gets quiet. Carthusian monks founded a monastery here in 1334. In 1794 the French dissolved it, the first monastery in Cologne to go, and the church became a military storehouse. Only in 1928 did it become a church again, this time for the Protestant congregation. The area around the church is still remarkably quiet today.

On Sachsenring stands a city gate that looks like a mill. That is no accident. The Ulrepforte was first mentioned in 1245 and takes its name from the Ulner, the potters who worked here at the edge of town because of the fire risk. Around 1450 the gate was walled up and turned into a windmill. Since 1956 it has been the home of the Rote Funken, one of the best known carnival corps in the city. Close by, a relief on the old wall recalls the battle at the Ulrepforte in 1268. It is a copy of a stone from 1360, which is considered the oldest monument to a historical event in Cologne and possibly in all of Germany.

About 200 metres further west a piece of the real wall is still standing: two towers, the wall between them and even the ditch in front. The city wall was built from 1180 and enclosed Cologne in a wide half circle. Demolition began in 1881 because the city needed room to grow. Here you can still see how high and how thick it was.

In the green space along Sachsenring stands a bronze that most people simply drive past: Diana, goddess of the hunt, with an antelope in mid leap beside her. It is the work of the sculptor Fritz Behn, who was best known for his animal figures. The sculpture was restored in 2015. Stop for a moment and look at how lightly the animal hangs in the air.

The walk ends a little to the north at one of the oldest churches in the city. Archbishop Bruno founded a Benedictine monastery here in 955, and the church was consecrated in 980. Empress Theophanu is buried inside. She was a princess from Byzantium who ruled the empire for her young son Otto III. She died in 991 and had asked to be buried here. From St Pantaleon it is only a few minutes to the trams at Barbarossaplatz.

All ten places in this text are stops in CuriFox. In the app you pick a start and a destination, or a ready-made route, and at each stop you get a short story and a small riddle about what is in front of you. Walking the routes is free.