Siegen
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Siegen

Siegen

Wooded Siegerland city where Rubens was born, with castles above an old iron-mining valley.

Siegen's main claim to fame is a big one: Peter Paul Rubens was born here in 1577. The city has leaned into that connection, and the Siegerlandmuseum in the Oberes Schloss (Upper Castle) holds a notable collection of Rubens paintings alongside exhibits on the region's iron-mining heritage. The hilltop castle itself, with its views over the wooded Siegerland hills, is worth the walk up.

The city sits in a valley surrounded by the densely forested hills of the Rothaargebirge, making it a good base for hiking along the Rothaarsteig trail. Below the Oberes Schloss, the Unteres Schloss (Lower Castle) anchors the old town centre with its distinctive octagonal tower. The Nikolaikirche nearby — a round church built on a Crusader model — features the golden Kroenchen crown visible from across the city.

Siegen is not a tourist town — it is a mid-sized university city with a workaday feel and limited nightlife. But the combination of the Rubens connection, two proper castles, the Hainer Stollen mine where Nazis hid artworks during WWII, and easy access to the surrounding forests gives it enough to fill a day or an overnight stop.

Guide

Getting There

Siegen is well connected by rail. The main station (Siegen Hauptbahnhof) has direct trains to Cologne (about 1.5–2 hours on the RE9 regional express) and Frankfurt (about 1.5 hours on the S-Bahn via Dillenburg). Services to Dortmund via Hagen take around 1.5 hours. The station is in the valley below the old town, about 15 minutes' walk from the Lower Castle.

By car, the A45 motorway passes through the Siegerland valley, making Siegen easy to reach from the Ruhr area to the north (about 1 hour to Dortmund) or Giessen to the south. The city is about 2.5 hours from Frankfurt and 1.5 hours from Cologne.

Guide

Things to Do

Siegen's sights are compact and walkable in the old town area. The two castles — the Oberes Schloss on the hilltop and the Unteres Schloss in the valley below — are the anchors of any visit. The Rubens connection gives the Siegerlandmuseum a genuine draw, and the industrial heritage of the Siegerland makes for some unusual detours into the surrounding countryside.