Dortmund Travel Guide

The Protestant Reinoldikirche is, according to its foundation date, the oldest extant church in Dortmund and is dedicated to Saint Reinoldus, the patron of the city. The church was built as a palatinate church in the Ottonian era. The present building is a late Romanesque church with a late gothic quire. The Reinoldikirche was built from 1250 to 1270, and is located in the center of the city, directly at the crossing of the Hellweg (a historic trade route) and the historic road from Cologne to Bremen.

The church was heavily damaged in World War II. Since the reconstruction the tower now bears a hood with baroque features. These features supply a visual and harmonious connection between the original style of the church and its appearance after reconstruction. The tower of the Reinoldikirche (104 m) can be visited, up to the first platform by the bell tower. On the inside there is a large set of bells; the heaviest bell weighing 6.500 kg, and measuring 2.50 m in diameter, is the largest cast steel bell in Westphalia.

Hours: daily from 10am - 6pm.

Westphalia Park's attractions include the German rosarium, a Bavarian and a Japanese garden, play areas and sweeping lawns with deckchairs. The rotating restaurant at the top of Florian, the 209-metre TV tower, offers epicurean delights and fabulous views of Dortmund and the surrounding region. Wischlingen Park is beautifully laid out with enormous trees, plenty of open space and an excellent selection of leisure activities.

The Museum of Natural History has been giving visitors an insight into the diversity of nature for almost a century. The outstanding collection includes around 150,000 insects, 35,000 herbarium sheets and 30,000 minerals, rocks and fossils. Other fascinating exhibits include two life-size models of dinosaurs in the museum's central atrium. The minerals collection has a 650kg rock crystal which sparkles in glorious technicolor. The botany and zoology sections are also well worth a visit, with an aquarium of tropical fish, live bees and terrariums containing spiders, scorpions and other exotic insects.

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 5pm.

Admission: Adults 4 €, Concessions 2 €.

The Zollern Colliery is part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It was built at the turn of the 19th century as a symbol of the industrial strength of the then biggest mining company. When it was opened in 1898 it was regarded as a model coal mine. Abandoned in 1966, the colliery was reopened in 1999 as a museum of the social and cultural history of the Ruhr area. Permanent displays and special exhibitions in the restored surface buildings give visitors an idea of the work of a coal mine at the end of the 19th century. The coal loading terminal, the former mine train station and a pithead frame visitors can climb are some of the attractions. In the housing estate outside the colliery gates visitors can see how miners and their families used to live.

At first sight palatial redbrick facades and gables on artistically adorned buildings dotted around a grassy square are more reminiscent of an aristocratic residence than a coal mine. This was exactly one of the ideas behind the architecture. Today the mansion of labor in the west of Dortmund is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and impressive testimonies to Germany's industrial history. The engine house with its famous Art Nouveau doorway is already an icon. But the museum's outstanding industrial architecture is only one of many different attractive facets. The various sections of the exhibition will take you into a world of harsh working conditions, and the stories of the men and women who worked in coalmining during the 20th century will bring this vividly to life.

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 6pm.

The museum - founded in 1883 - is the oldest of its kind in the Ruhr area and presents precious, rare, typical and ordinary objects in an elegant setting. Themes include Everyday life and special occasions of yesteryear, Back to the Stone Age, Trades and Guilds, The Biedermann Salon, The Grand Ball in the Town House. The Roman gold treasure, the Romanesque triumphal cross, the Renaissance rarities collection, silvery cutlery and finest porcelain are among the museum's most precious exhibits. The art collection contains works by leading 18th and 19th century artists such as Caspar David Friedrich, Spitzweg, Feuerbach, Liebermann, Slevogt and Corinth. The exhibition on the history of surveying presents rare geodesic instruments and much more.