Living in Marienburg, Cologne

Marienburg lies in the Rodenkirchen Stadtbezirk, on the left bank of the Rhine south of the inner city. Raderberg and Bayenthal are to the north, Raderthal to the west, Rodenkirchen to the south, and the river closes it to the east. Just over seven thousand people live in its three square kilometres, which makes it one of the least densely built Stadtteile in Cologne and, on the property market, one of the most expensive.

What it is

A planned villa colony. The merchant Ernst Leybold bought the Marienburg estate in the nineteenth century and sold it off in large parcels to wealthy buyers; after Cologne absorbed the area in 1888 the city took the planning in hand, and building ran from roughly 1895 to 1925. The result is an unbroken architectural sequence from late Historicism through Jugendstil and Expressionism into early Modernism, with houses by architects of the rank of Paul Bonatz and Dominikus Böhm. Streets are wide, verges are planted, and most plots hold one house. When Bonn became the West German capital in 1949 a number of diplomatic missions took Marienburg villas before moving south. The Südpark occupies the western part of the Stadtteil, and the Rhine embankment path runs the full length of the eastern edge.

Who lives here

Owners rather than tenants: established Cologne families, company directors, doctors and lawyers with their practices elsewhere, and older residents who have been in the same house for forty years. The population is small, stable and old by city standards. There are a few apartment buildings, mostly along the northern and river-side edges, and a thin supply of flats converted out of large villas. Rooms in shared flats exist here in single figures rather than in numbers, and they are not cheap - people who work in Cologne and want this end of town usually rent in Bayenthal or Raderthal and walk into Marienburg for the park.

What it's like during the day

Extremely quiet. There is no high street, no market square and no cluster of cafés; the district is residential almost end to end. Daytime activity is gardeners, delivery vans, dog walkers and school runs. The Südpark is where the district goes outdoors, and the Rhine path along the embankment is a continuous walking and cycling route north to the Rheinauhafen and the city centre and south towards Rodenkirchen. On a weekday afternoon you can walk for ten minutes without meeting anyone.

What it's like in the evening

Silent. There is essentially no evening economy inside the Stadtteil - a couple of restaurants and that is the extent of it. Anyone who wants a bar takes the tram five minutes north to the Südstadt or ten minutes into the centre. Streets are well lit, well kept and completely still after nine. This is either the entire point of the place or an immediate disqualification, depending on who you are.

Getting around

Stadtbahn lines 16 and 17 run along the riverside axis with stops at Bayenthalgürtel and Heinrich-Lübke-Ufer, and continue north via Schönhauser Straße, Ubierring and Chlodwigplatz to Barbarossaplatz, Poststraße and Neumarkt - the Neumarkt is around seven stops. Southwards the same lines reach Rodenkirchen Bahnhof in a stop or two. Bus lines 106, 130, 132 and 134 cross the district. The catch is geometry: the tram hugs the Rhine, so the villa streets inland and the Südpark end are a walk of ten to fifteen minutes from the nearest stop. Cycling solves this - the ground is flat and the riverside path is fast - and most households here have a car as well.

Eating and shopping

Almost nothing inside the boundaries. For groceries, bakeries, a chemist and a proper choice of restaurants you go north to Goltsteinstraße in Bayenthal, about a kilometre and a quarter from the middle of Marienburg, or south into Rodenkirchen. Both are walkable if you like walking and one tram stop if you do not. Plan on doing your shopping somewhere else: this is a district that assumes you have a car boot or a bicycle basket.

When NOT to pick it

Do not pick it if you are looking for a room on a normal budget - the supply is tiny and the prices are the highest in this part of Cologne. Do not pick it if you want shops, bars, or people on the street, because there are none. Do not pick it if you would be a long walk from the tram and do not intend to cycle. And do not pick it if you want a mixed, young, noisy neighbourhood, because Marienburg is the opposite of all four. If you want the same riverside and the same tram at a rentable price, look immediately north to Bayenthal; if you want green and quiet with more flats, look west to Raderthal or south to Rodenkirchen.

Marienburg is the right choice if you have found one of the rare rooms or flats here and you value silence, architecture, the Südpark and the Rhine path above having anything at all within walking distance. For senior professionals, visiting academics and anyone with a car and a preference for calm, it is one of the most beautiful addresses in the city - and for most room-seekers, it is simply the wrong shape.