Hotels near Hohenzollern Bridge (Hohenzollernbrücke)

The Hohenzollern Bridge carries more than 1,200 trains a day across the Rhine and, since roughly 2008, has also carried several tonnes of love-locks clipped to its pedestrian railings by couples who then throw the keys into the water. The city has stopped trying to remove them - the weight is fine, engineers have checked, and the locks have become the single most photographed non-cathedral image of Cologne. Walk the full length from the cathedral side to Deutz and back, and you'll cross exactly where the Romans built their first Rhine crossing in the first century.

The view looking back at the Dom from the Deutz bank at sunset is the postcard shot. On the north side of the bridge you'll also spot the equestrian statues of four Prussian kaisers, added between 1867 and 1911.

Pro Tip: Cross to the Deutz side and walk 200 metres to the KölnTriangle observation deck (around EUR 5 in 2026) for a panorama that includes both the cathedral and the bridge in one frame - impossible from anywhere on the west bank.