12 Best Sights in The Rhineland, Germany

This impressive city museum offers a heady mix of natural history and fine art. The permanent Aesthetics of Nature exhibition is spread across the two floors and divided into four fascinating themes: Color, Form, Movement, and Time. Expect to learn about the functional white fur of polar bears, the swimming legs of crabs, the fossils left behind from when this region was a large sea, and much more. The art collection is spread across all three floors and includes everything from the figurative paintings of Dutch Old Masters to the abstract sculptures of European and American modernism. Look out for the bright, expressionist paintings of Russian artist Alexej Jawlensky, who lived in Wiesbaden for the last 20 years of his life, and don't miss the Jugenstil exhibit, featuring more than 500 magnificent Art Nouveau paintings, furnishings, and ornaments. Temporary exhibitions focus on art and culture from around the world. Don't miss the spectacular, gold-colored mosaics on the interior of the cupola, just to the left as you enter the museum.

The largest collection of Roman antiquities in Germany is housed here. The highlight is the 4th-century stone relief of a Roman ship transporting barrels of wine up the river. This tombstone of a Roman wine merchant was discovered in 1874, when Constantine's citadel in Neumagen, a village roughly halfway between Bernkastel and Trier, was excavated. Have a look at the 108-square-foot model of the city as it looked in the 4th century—it provides a sense of perspective to many of the sights you can still visit today.

The triumphs and tragedies of Cologne's rich past are packed into this museum relocated in March 2024 at the site of a former luxury shopping mall. Here you'll find an in-depth chronicle of Cologne's history—including information about the lives of ordinary people and the destruction incurred during World War II. For those who've always wanted to be privy to the inside stories surrounding local words such as Klüngel, Kölsch, and Karneval, the answers are waiting to be discovered within the museum's walls.

While this archeological museum is closed for renovations until 2026, a selection of important treasures from its collection of ancient Roman artifacts is on view in the Belgian House, near the Neumarkt Galerie shopping mall. Among them are tombstones and busts from the 1st century, ancient glass vessels decorated with the trademark “Cologne Squiggle,” and everyday objects from Roman life. Placards are in both German and English.

The cathedral houses sacred art from late antiquity and the Carolingian, Ottonian, and Hohenstaufen eras. A bust of Charlemagne on view here was commissioned in the late 14th century by Emperor Karl IV, who traveled here from Prague for the sole reason of having it made. The bust incorporates a piece of Charlemagne's skull. Other highlights include the Cross of Lothair and the Persephone Sarcophagus.

German history since World War II is the subject of this museum, which begins with "hour zero," as the Germans call the unconditional surrender of 1945. The museum displays an overwhelming amount of documentary material organized on five levels and engages various types of media. You can even step inside a re-created 1950s ice-cream parlor, complete with an interactive jukebox. An audio guide in English is available.

This museum and archive houses significant manuscripts of the German poet and man of letters, Heinrich Heine. Part of the complex was once the residence of the composer Robert Schumann.

Housed in the beautiful baroque villa Haus Böcking (1750), once frequented by the likes of Goethe and King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV, this museum shows how life was for the 18th and 19th century bourgeoisie. Discover 20 exhibition rooms showcasing magnificent period furnishings and impressive works of art, along with a collection chronicling the historical development of Traben-Trarbach.

At this small but very well cared-for museum, you can see the most intact set of Roman surgical tools ever discovered (2nd century), period rooms from the Rhine Romantic era, and displays about Abbess St. Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179), one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages. An outspoken critic of papal and imperial machinations, she was a highly respected scholar, naturopath, and artist whose mystic writings and (especially) music became very popular starting in the 1990s, when her work was rediscovered and popularized by feminist religious scholars. An excellent illustrated booklet in English on Rhine Romanticism, The Romantic Rhine, is sold at the museum shop. The museum is housed in a former power station (1898) on the riverbank.

The town museum, housed in the 14th-century Kurfürstliche Burg (Elector's Castle) built by the archbishop of Trier, has exhibits on Boppard's Roman and medieval past, as well as an extensive collection of bentwood furniture designed by the town's favorite son, Michael Thonet (1796–1871). The cane-bottom Stuhl Nr. 14 (Chair No. 14) is the classic found in coffeehouses around the world since 1859.

Part of the Kulturhaus Oberwesel, a historic winery turned culture center, this museum offers a virtual tour of the town, as well as a multimedia "journey through time" showing the area from the Stone Age to the present day. It also houses a fine collection of old etchings and drawings of the Rhine Valley, including one by John Gardnor, an English clergyman and painter, who published a book of sketches upon his return to England and kicked off a wave of Romantic-era tourism in the late 18th century.