The distinctive look of this district, the former commercial port, is to a good measure owed to its architectural highlights. Worthy of mention are the remarkable individual buildings by star architect Frank O. Gehry with their metal outer shell and their unusual oblique position, a nod to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. However, special praise is owed to the soaring Stadttor office block, which has become the city’s new landmark. And as its name (which aptly means city gate) suggests, it also harks back to the Middle Ages, when a city gate played a key role.

Back to the harbor, framed by the glass and steel of its futuristic and historical facades, home to trendy bars, bistros and top restaurants, law and business offices, studios for fashion, advertising, media and art, location for artist Immendorf’s ‘Monkeys’, Rosalie’s ‘Flossies’ and, coming soon, two huge nine-meter high ‘Köngiskinder’ sculptures by Markus Lüpertz, which will look down from two harbour-side residential towers onto work and play, and onto all those evening visitors as they stream into multiplex-movie theaters, bars, bistros and gourmet restaurants.