Deichmannhaus

Deichmannhaus stands in Cologne’s Altstadt-Nord, opening its seven-story corner facade toward the station square and Trankgasse. Muschelkalk stone and monumental half-columns shape the building, which measures about sixty by fifty metres. A pedestrian zone has surrounded the entrance square since 2002.

The site reaches back to the fifteenth-century Kölner Hof, beside vineyards belonging to the cathedral chapter. Courts, archbishops, royal guests, a prison and the Wallrafianum museum once occupied its buildings. After the original complex was demolished in 1863, Wilhelm Ludwig Deichmann commissioned the Palais Deichmann, completed in 1867. That building later gave way to the present structure, designed by Heinrich Müller-Erkelenz and completed in August 1914.

Banks, insurance offices, a patent law firm and restaurants have used the premises across the decades. The protected monument also preserves a link to 1970s Cologne: the former Alt-Köln pub incorporated a carillon into its copper facade.