Lanxess Arena
Steel-arched arena for ice hockey and concerts, turned into a ritual carnival hall each winter.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Lanxess Arena in Cologne asks why an ice rink built for slap shots and stadium rock turns into carnival's ritual home each winter, the moment the clock strikes eleven-eleven every November. You'll meet the Dreigestirn, the fake royal court of Prince, Peasant and Maiden that presides over the season, its casting carrying a generations-old twist. It traces the crowd's chant of Alaaf back through Rhineland tradition, a greeting believed to hold off misfortune, and the open question of why eleven became the city's sacred number.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Tanzbrunnen
Open-air riverside stage built around a walkable fountain rotunda once used as a dance floor.
Haus des Kölner Karnevals
Carnival museum built around the parade-float workshop, ledgers, medals and costumes of a two-century tradition.
Brauhaus FRÜH am Dom
Cathedral-square beer hall built inside a former nineteenth-century theatre, its grand room designed by a Cologne carnival sculptor.
Brauhaus Sion
Timber-framed brewpub hall pouring house Kölsch straight from the barrel since medieval times.
Antoniterkirche
Gothic hospital-order church turned Protestant sanctuary on a bustling shopping street.
RheinEnergieSTADION
Bundesliga ground where the exclusive Kolsch brewer has poured fans' beer since two thousand two.