Burgplatz means Castle Square, yet Düsseldorf’s castle is almost completely gone.

A fire destroyed the first one, and a second, a baroque palace, was finished in 1559. The French destroyed it in 1794. It was, yet again, rebuilt. Another fire in 1872 destroyed much of the palace, and it was completely demolished. Only a tower survived every round of destruction.

The white tower’s first three floors date from the 1200s, at the very beginning of the city. The Italian architect Alessandro Pasqualini added a fourth in 1559, and Friedrich August Stüler a fifth and final one in 1845. Today the tower houses the shipping museum, with a café on top that looks over the Rhine and the harbour.

VoiceMap’s Düsseldorf tour stops at the tower to tell the castle’s story floor by floor, then crosses the square, remodelled in 1995, where people sit by the river and concerts are often held.