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Leipzig

'Hypezig!' cry the papers, 'the New Berlin', says just about everybody. Yes, Leipzig is Saxony's coolest city, a playground for nomadic young creatives who have been displaced by the fast-gentrifying German capital, but it's also a city of enormous history, a trade-fair centre and solidly in the sights of music lovers due to its intrinsic connection to the lives and work of Bach, Mendelssohn and Wagner.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Nikolaikirche
Leipzig
This church has Romanesque and Gothic roots, but since 1797 has sported a striking neoclassical interior with palm-like pillars and cream-coloured pews…
Museen im Grassi
Leipzig
The university-run Museen im Grassi harbours three fantastic collections that are often overlooked, despite being a five-minute walk from Augustusplatz…
Museum der Bildenden Künste
Leipzig
This imposing modernist glass cube is the home of Leipzig's fine art museum and its world-class collection of paintings from the 15th century to today,…
Asisi Panometer
Leipzig
The happy marriage of a panorama (a giant 360-degree painting) and a gasometer (a giant gas tank) is a panometer. The unusual concept is the brainchild of…
Museum für Völkerkunde
Leipzig
At Leipzig's Ethnological Museum, you can plunge into an eye-opening journey through the cultures of the world.
Südfriedhof
Leipzig
Leipzig's largest cemetery is a vast and beautiful park, filled with rosebay shrubs, populated by squirrels, rabbits and foxes and centred on a building…
Stasi Museum
Leipzig
In the GDR the walls had ears, as is chillingly documented in this exhibit in the former Leipzig headquarters of the East German secret police (the Stasi)…
Zeitgeschichtliches Forum
Leipzig
This fascinating, enormous and well-curated exhibit covers the political history of the GDR, from division and dictatorship to fall-of-the-Wall ecstasy…