Parroo

Coverage Germany

Audio Guide Solingen

app, one-time €4.99

Solingen has earned its reputation as the "City of Blades" over centuries, with cutlery and knife-making traditions stretching back to the 14th century. The region is also home to Germany's highest railway bridge, the Müngsten Bridge, a 107-metre steel arch that still carries trains today. Between medieval castle ruins, water-powered grinding mills, and a museum dedicated to persecuted artists, the city offers more texture than its industrial label suggests.

13+ researched places in the app

Yes. Parroo is a self-guided audio guide for Solingen: 13 researched places, from Müngsten Bridge to Castle Burg on the Wupper and German Blade Museum, each with a short summary, a full article, and a roughly three-minute audio story in German, English, and French. Buy once, no subscription, no booking. Start whenever you like.

Solingen
Photo: InterCityImpress · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Audio sample: Müngsten Bridge

AI-generated voice, from the Parroo app

Solingen

Places researched in this city

A selection of the 13 places we've researched in this city. The full set is in the Parroo app.

  • Medieval castle
  • Railway bridge
  • Blade museums
  • Historic grinding mills
  • Memorial art
  • 01

    Müngsten Bridge

    Before this bridge opened in 1897, the rail journey between Solingen and Remscheid covered roughly 44 kilometres via a lengthy detour; the bridge cut that to about eight kilometres. Designed by Anton von Rieppel and rising 107 metres above the Wupper, it remains Germany's highest railway bridge.

  • 02

    Castle Burg on the Wupper

    Founded around 1130 by Count Adolf II of Berg, this hilltop castle once ranked among the largest fortifications in western Germany before Imperial troops dismantled its defences after the Thirty Years' War. A major restoration beginning in 1890 brought it back to its current form, perched 100 metres above the Wupper.

  • 03

    German Blade Museum

    The museum holds the world's largest cutlery collection, housed inside a former Augustinian women's monastery founded in 1187. The building was secularised in 1803 and subsequently served as military barracks, a reformatory, a hospital, and an archive before becoming a museum in 1954.

  • 04

    Center for Persecuted Arts

    Opened in 2015 inside Gräfrath's 1907 town hall, this museum collects around 10,000 objects connected to artists persecuted under 20th-century dictatorships, including works by Else Lasker-Schüler. It is one of very few institutions worldwide with this specific focus.

  • 05

    Historic Town Center Gräfrath

    Gräfrath became a significant pilgrimage destination in 1309 when a relic of Saint Catherine was transferred here, and Duke Wilhelm I of Berg granted it town-like privileges in 1402. The timber-framed houses lining its streets today largely date from the rebuilding that followed a devastating fire in 1686.

  • 06

    Memorial to the Arson Attack in Solingen 1993

    On 29 May 1993, a racially motivated arson attack at Beethovenstraße 225 killed five women and girls of Turkish origin. The copper and metal monument unveiled the following year features figures tearing apart a swastika, and more than 6,500 named rings have since been added by members of the public.

  • 07

    Wipperkotten

    One of only two grinding workshops on the Wupper still largely preserved in their original form, the Wipperkotten has operated on this site since around 1600 and once provided work for up to 16 grinders. In 1783 both of its buildings burned down after a gunshot reportedly set fire to the straw roofs during unrest involving French paramilitary bands.

  • 08

    6 more places to discover

    In the Parroo app

Good to know

13 researched places, from the Müngsten Bridge and Castle Burg on the Wupper to lesser-known spots like the Wipperkotten. Each one has a short summary, a full article, and a ~3-minute audio story.

Yes. Every place has a ~3-minute audio story, written from the perspective of a guide standing next to you and produced with premium narration, not the article read aloud.

German, English, and French. Pick whichever you'd rather read or listen in.

No booking, no signup. It's a self-guided walk you start whenever you like. You do need a connection for now to stream the audio and load articles; offline support is something we're still building.

A one-time €4.99 for the whole city, no subscription and no recurring cost. You buy Solingen once and keep access to all 13 places with text and audio.

Open this city in Parroo

Get the full articles, audio stories, and map for this city in the Parroo app. One payment per geography. Yours to keep.

Updated: 2026-09-25