Gürzenich – also known as "Cologne’s front parlour".
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Representative building from the 15th century with a late Gothic façade.
Congresses, concerts, balls, social events, seminars
Our spaces
| Area: | Row: | Classroom: | Banquet round tables: | Banquet long tables: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Großer SaalDetails | 1,113 m2 | 1,101Seating plan | 574Seating plan | 780Seating plan | 1,338Seating plan |
| Kleiner SaalDetails | 575 m2 | 435Seating plan | 200Seating plan | 400Seating plan | 490Seating plan |
| IsabellensaalDetails | 211 m2 | 223Seating plan | 104Seating plan | 190Seating plan | 280Seating plan |
| MarsiliussaalDetails | 303 m2 | 180Seating plan | 100Seating plan | 230 Seating plan | 252Seating plan |
| WeinkellerDetails | 390 m2 | - | - | 220Seating plan | 350Seating plan |
| RatsstubeDetails | 141 m2 | - | - | 110Seating plan | 150Seating plan |
| ErdgeschossfoyerDetails | 690 m2 | - | - | - | - |
| SaalfoyerDetails | 440 m2 | - | - | - | - |
Location in 3D
Food Service
From the foyer to one of the spacious halls in Gürzenich: We create culinary delicacies that suit your event, for you and your guests – with delights in all variations, whether as finger food or a flying dinner, as a buffet or a menu.
Our Partner in the Gürzenich:
Koelncongress Gastronomie GmbH
Fabian Holk
Gastronomy manager
Gürzenich
phone: +49 221 284-8612
fax: +49 221 284-8655
f.holk@koelncongress-gastro.de
Event Requests
Are you an event planner looking to book your event at one of our locations? Or are you an exhibitor at one of Koelnmesse’s trade fair events in search of suitable premises to complement your stand during the trade fair?
From brainstorming and developing a powerful experience concept to all organisational issues, our sales team is available at sales@koelncongress.de to help you make sure your event receives the attention it deserves.
Or submit your non-binding event request here.
Location
Gürzenich is centrally located in Cologne’s city centre, in the immediate vicinity of Cologne Cathedral and the central station.
Gürzenich Köln
Martinstraße 29-37
D-50667 Cologne
Arrival
From the central station / cathedral:
Tram line 5 (towards Heumarkt) to the “Heumarkt” stop.
From the “Köln Messe / Deutz” ICE train station:
Tram line 1 (towards Weiden) to the “Heumarkt” stop.
Tram line 9 (towards Sülz Hermeskeiler Platz) to the “Heumarkt” stop.
From the “Heumarkt” stop, it is about a 2-minute walk to Gürzenich.
From Cologne Bonn Airport:
Take the S-Bahn line S 19 (direction Düren) to the “Köln Messe / Deutz” stop.
From there, take tram line 1 (direction Weiden) or line 9 (direction Sülz Hermeskeiler Platz) to the “Heumarkt” stop. Gürzenich is about a 2-minute walk away.
Alternatively, the regional express train (Regionalexpress) runs from Cologne Bonn Airport to Cologne Central Station. From there, take tram line 5 (direction Heumarkt) to the “Heumarkt” stop.
The travel time from the airport to both stations is approximately 15 minutes.
Unfortunately, Gürzenich does not have its own parking spaces. We therefore recommend arriving by public transport.
You’ll find an overview of the nearest parking garages here.
Tip: The NUNAV navigation app is available free of charge to help you get to your parking space with as little traffic as possible. NUNAV is a collaborative navigation system with real-time traffic forecasts that update every second. It uses artificial intelligence to distribute traffic across the entire road network and not just a few main routes. The system guides you directly to your free event parking space while helping you avoiding traffic in the process.
History
Gürzenich boasts more than 550 years of history as a Cologne venue. After the city’s Rathaus (town hall), today it is considered Cologne’s leading secular structure.
A ‘front parlour’ for the City of Cologne
The City of Cologne’s ‘front parlour’ was built by the City Council as a civic ballroom and market hall between 1441 and 1447. The ground floor was initially used as a market hall, and the festival hall on the upper floor formed a distinguished backdrop for social and political events. This was where Cologne’s guests of honour were received, where festivities were celebrated by emperors and princes – but court sessions and a Reichstag were held here as well.
After serving solely as a market hall from the 17th century, medieval festival-hall tradition of Gürzenich was revived in the 1820s. With no other Cologne festival hall able to compete with the size or tradition of Gürzenich, the venue soon rose to become Cologne’s top event location – particularly during the Karneval season.
Even before the Festival Committee Cologne Carnival was founded in 1822, the people of Cologne were dancing at masked balls held in Gürzenich. The Gürzenich also became popular as a music venue. Concerts held in Gürzenich formed the basis for Cologne’s international reputation as a music city, with the city’s musicians named the ‘Gürzenich Orchestra’ in recognition of their concert hall.
Its popularity created a need for additional space. 1855 to 1857 marked the construction of the neo-Gothic annex based on plans by Julius Raschdorff; the festival hall was given a new, neo-Gothic design.
An ensemble of modernism and Gothic
Large parts of Gürzenich were destroyed in 1943. Already in 1948, with housing construction still a high priority, the City of Cologne decided to rebuild Gürzenich – sending a clear signal of the structure’s high status among the citizenry of Cologne.
From 1952 to 1955, the Gürzenich building ensemble was constructed from the Gothic walls of Gürzenich and Old St. Alban based on plans by Karl Band and Rudolf Schwarz. Here, modern architecture combines harmoniously, but also in deliberate contrast, with the walls of the Gothic structures. The building ensemble gained national recognition and enriched the Cologne architectural landscape as an extraordinarily high-quality instance of the ‘organic construction’ of the 1950s.
Perfect for smaller and large events
After the Gürzenich Orchestra relocated to the Cologne Philharmonie, which opened in 1986, new areas of use had to be found for the building. As a result, in 1994 KölnKongress Betriebs- und Service GmbH, in which the city of Cologne holds 51% and Koelnmesse 49%, was established as the new operator of Gürzenich.
In 1996 to 1997, the architectural firm KSP Engel Kraemer Schmiedecke Zimmermann Architekten BDA transformed Gürzenich into a restored, updated and expanded event centre with the help of restoration experts and specialised craftsmen and -women, while largely preserving and conserving the listed building structure.
Ever since then, Gürzenich has served as a venue for social and cultural events, congresses and smaller exchanges and exhibitions.
