Kurt-Hackenberg-Platz sits between the Roman-Germanic Museum, the Philharmonie and Museum Ludwig, with Cologne Cathedral looming behind it. For years it was an unloved gap in the city's fabric, a former bishop's garden left to fade. Redesigned as a spare public garden, it is now planted with Japanese pagoda trees and framed by a long stone bench.

The square is named after Kurt Hackenberg, the city's postwar cultural councillor who made Art Cologne possible, striking the deal that let its founders use the Gürzenich as a venue in 1967.

Running through the square is a Roman harbour road, laid nearly 2,000 years ago. VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours explain why its stones are crooked: unearthed during a 1960s construction project, they were moved five metres to make room for a car park, and rain washed off the markings before workers could reassemble them correctly.