A Sensory Journey through Melaten Cemetery in Cologne

On this tour, you'll walk through the Melaten Cemetery and enjoy the incomparable unity of a park and a cemetery in the heart of Cologne. There you'll experience a variety of flora, including a 200-year-old plane tree, as well as forty different animal species that might cross your path.You'll learn why the cemetery was built on this particular site and what Napoleon had to do with it. Your path leads past imposing, curious, colorful and modest grave sites that tell their emotional stories of love, gratitude, inventions and much more. You'll discover the versatility of this place in a tour that appeals to all senses.You'll find out how the merry people of Cologne see life and death as one and the same thing, and how this is also very present in carnival. Discover the central axis of Melaten, the “Avenue of Millions”, where celebrities found their final resting place. The tour takes you past the Grim Reaper, and you'll see how terrifying people imagined death to be in the Middle Ages. You'll experience the peace that this place radiates and discover many details that show that the deceased are not forgotten.