The German town of Kassel has many special sights, but the absolute highlight of a city trip is the colourful street art of Kassel. The Schillerviertel and Kassel Nordstadt – just north of the city centre and the train station – are an amazing open-air street art gallery. So we definitely recommend you to leave the center during your city trip and walk to this district to enjoy this unique cultural highlight of Kassel. We will tell you exactly how to spot the most beautiful street art in Kassel and we’ll give you an itinerary along the most beautiful works.
Colorful street art in the north of Kassel
The KolorCubes project has transformed the plain concrete walls in the neighbourhoods north of the city centre of Kassel into a gallery with the most colourful works of art. It started with only three street artworks in the Schillerviertel, but it soon grew into a large-scale art project. Artists from all over the world were invited to Kassel to use its concrete walls as a canvas. About 30 murals were created in these neighborhoods, giving the somewhat dull districts a completely different look.
Take a few hours to walk past the artworks when visiting Kassel. You could guess the source of inspiration or the message of the artist, but it is even more fun to read or hear about it. We recommend you to take a tour of Kassel’s street art and we found the perfect self-guided tour online.
Our favourite street artworks in Kassel are all part of this itinerary:
- Stephen Hawkings Goldfisch of Jakules showing a distorted reality through the eyes of a goldfish and a boy correcting this view
- Schneewittchen from Innerfields with the classic witch from the Snow White fairytale symbolizing nature-destroying industry and seven forest animals depicting the dwarfs
- Ascend by Tobias Hahn creating a pattern over the bricks of a facade
- Kosmon by Pau Quintanajornet and Sebastian Carreño Gaibisso, inspired by Andean mythology and culture
Two street art itineraries in Kassel
Two years ago, a free audio tour and self-guided walking tour of 26 murals were introduced. The tour is about 4 kilometres. Unfortunately, the tour is only available in German, but the audio explanation of about one minute for each mural is also available in text, so you can easily use a translation app on your phone to learn about the murals. If 4 kilometers is a bit too much for you, you will clearly see on the audio tour map that the itinerary focuses on two districts. You could choose to only explore the area closest to the city centre (murals 14 to 26).
There is also a second interactive street art map of Kassel with 20 works of art. The photos show where to find which murals, but there is no further explanation for the works.
