Flora Botanical Garden

The Flora is the city of Cologne's botanical garden, displaying more than 10,000 native and exotic plant species outdoors and in glasshouses. The centrepiece of the 11-hectare grounds in the Riehl district is the glass festival hall, also called Flora.

At a glance

• Opened: 1864
• Area: over 11 hectares
• Plant species: more than 10,000
• Location: Riehl, right next to Cologne Zoo

A historicist garden masterpiece

The overall design was created by the Prussian garden director Peter Joseph Lenné, who combined several European garden styles into one composition: a Baroque parterre, a water cascade recalling Italian Renaissance gardens, and broad areas in the style of English landscape parks. More than 150 years of garden art can be read here.

Festival hall & glasshouses

At its heart stands the palatial glass-and-iron winter garden, modelled on the Paris Jardin d'hiver and London's Crystal Palace. The hall still hosts events today, while the glasshouses present tropical and subtropical plant worlds.