Lined with luxury fashion boutiques, jewellery stores and upmarket hotels, the Königsallee is Düsseldorf’s most exclusive shopping address. It runs north to south through the North Rhine-Westphalia capital, with a canal carving through its centre, and is affectionately referred to as Kö by locals.
Stretching one kilometre between Hofgarten park in the north and Graf-Adolf-Straße in the south, Königsallee lies within the Stadtmitte district, next to Düsseldorf's old quarter. The boulevard is around 80 metres wide, with the eastern side featuring flagship brand stores, while the western side houses banks, offices and hotels. Bvlgari, Calvin Klein, Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Hugo Boss, Prada and Tiffany all boast shopfronts along Königsallee, while the Inter Continental, Breidenbacher Hof and Steigenberger Parkhotel share its address. Königsallee has recently been twinned with Avenue Montaigne in Paris, celebrating the international importance of these luxury shopping strips and showcasing it in joint activities between the two.
Königsallee is easily accessed from the Steinstraße/Königsallee U-Bahn station just to the west of the boulevard, as well as from the subway stations on its northwestern and southwestern edges. It’s also within easy walking distance from many of Düsseldorf’s Altstadt historic sights, together with the leafy walking trails of the Hofgarten.
With the removal of Düsseldorf’s fortifications at the end of the 19th century, there were plans for a more spacious urban layout, including a Classicist esplanade designed by court architect Caspar Anton Hirschberger. It was originally named “Kastanienallee” for the chestnut trees planted along its canal, before being renamed “Königsallee”, or King’s Avenue, to appease King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.