Alte Wache
The Alte Wache is a neoclassical guardhouse in Cologne, linked by a connecting structure to the former city armoury, the Zeughaus. Together, these buildings form part of the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum.
Built between 1840 and 1841, the guardhouse served the Prussian military administration and accommodated about thirty soldiers. Cologne architect and engineer Major Schuberth designed it. The planned Florentine style reflects the neoclassical taste associated with Cologne’s early nineteenth-century Prussian period. Only its outer walls survived the Second World War.
Reconstruction in 1957 and 1958 restored the building for continued use within Cologne’s museum complex. It first housed collections from the Roman-Germanic Museum. Today, the Alte Wache presents temporary exhibitions connected with Cologne’s art and history. The wider museum traces Cologne’s history through political, economic and cultural themes. Those themes include Kölsch beer and Cologne Carnival. The collection also covers puppet theatre and the city’s connection with the internal combustion engine.
- City
- Cologne
- Content updated
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Cologne. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.