Aachen Self-Guided Walking Audio Tour

Aachen on foot, from the city gate to the spa fountain

10 stops · about 24 min walking · start: Ponttor · finish: Elisenbrunnen

The walk starts at the Ponttor, one of two surviving gates of the outer city wall, and follows Pontstraße through the student quarter past the Church of the Holy Cross and the International Newspaper Museum. At the market square City Hall comes into view, then the Centre Charlemagne on the Katschhof between City Hall and the cathedral. The Couven Museum on the Hühnermarkt and the Puppenbrunnen on Krämerstraße lead to Aachen Cathedral, after which the Kreislauf des Geldes fountain and the colonnade of the Elisenbrunnen close the route. Start anywhere you like in the app, and no stop asks for an entry fee.

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1. 

   1PonttorStart

   The Ponttor is one of only two surviving gates of Aachen's outer city wall, built in the 14th century. Its main gate tower is joined to an outer gate by walls, a layout that trapped attackers between the two, and it stands at the end of Pontstraße, the street that leads to the market square.

2. 

   2Church of the Holy Cross

   This Catholic church stands in the Pont quarter, the lively district around Pontstraße that is popular with students of RWTH Aachen University. Compare its quiet church front with the cafés, bars and student pubs that line the rest of the street.

3. 

   3International Newspaper Museum

   The museum was founded in 1886 by Oscar von Forckenbeck and holds one of the largest collections of newspapers in the world, including many historic first and special editions. Aachen suits the theme: in 1850 Paul Julius Reuter ran a carrier-pigeon news service from here, before founding his news agency in London.

4. 

   4City Hall

   Aachen's Gothic City Hall was built in the 14th century on the walls of Charlemagne's palace hall, and the Granus Tower on its east side goes back to his time. After their coronation in the cathedral, German kings held their banquet in its great hall, and the Charlemagne Prize for services to European unity is awarded here every year.

5. 

   5Centre Charlemagne

   This museum of city history opened in 2014 on the Katschhof, the square between City Hall and the cathedral where Charlemagne's palace once stood. It tells Aachen's story from the Roman spa town to today, with Charlemagne and the coronations of kings at its centre.

6. 

   6Couven Museum

   This museum shows how wealthy Aachen families lived in the 18th and 19th centuries, in furnished rooms from rococo to Biedermeier. It is named after the Aachen architect Johann Joseph Couven, and on the Hühnermarkt in front stands the Hühnerdieb fountain, a bronze thief making off with a hen.

7. 

   7Puppenbrunnen

   The Doll Fountain on Krämerstraße was created by the sculptor Bonifatius Stirnberg in the 1970s. Its bronze figures represent characters from Aachen life, and their arms and heads are jointed, so you are allowed to move them and change their poses.

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8. 

   8Aachen Cathedral

   Charlemagne built the octagonal Palatine Chapel around 800 as part of his palace, and he was buried here in 814. Between 936 and 1531 some 30 German kings were crowned here, and in 1978 the cathedral became the first German site on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

9. 

   9Kreislauf des Geldes

   This bronze fountain sculpture, whose name means the circulation of money, shows a ring of figures through whose hands money passes. Take a close look at their faces and gestures, which comment with plenty of humour on what money does to people.

10. 

    10ElisenbrunnenFinish

    This neoclassical pavilion with its colonnade was built in the 1820s and named after Crown Princess Elisabeth of Prussia. Two fountains deliver warm thermal water with a strong smell of sulphur, and plaques list famous spa guests who came to Aachen for its springs, such as Peter the Great.

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