Bamberg

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Frescos decorate walls of Old Town Hall in Bamburg, Germany

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Overview

A disarmingly beautiful architectural masterpiece with an almost complete absence of modern eyesores, Bamberg's entire Altstadt is a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of Bavaria's unmissables. Generally regarded as one of Germany's most attractive settlements, the town is bisected by rivers and canals and was built by archbishops on seven hills, earning it the inevitable sobriquet of ‘Franconian Rome’. Students inject some liveliness into its streets, pavement cafes, pubs and no fewer than 10 breweries cooking up Bamberg's famous smoked beer, but it's usually wide-eyed tourists who can be seen filing through its narrow medieval streets. The town can be tackled as a day trip from Nuremberg, but, to really do it justice and to experience the romantically lit streets once most visitors have left, consider an overnight stay.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Bamberger Dom

Bamberg

Beneath the quartet of spires, Bamberg’s cathedral is packed with artistic treasures, most famously the slender equestrian statue of the Bamberger Reiter …

Klein Venedig

Bamberg

A row of diminutive, half-timbered cottages once inhabited by fishermen and their families (hence the street's name meaning 'fishery') comprises Bamberg’s…

Kloster St Michael

Bamberg

Above Domplatz, at the top of Michaelsberg, is the Benedictine Kloster St Michael, a former monastery and now an aged people’s home. The monastery church…

Historisches Museum

Bamberg

Bamberg's main museum fills the Alte Hofhaltung (old court hall), a former prince-bishops' palace near the cathedral, with a mixed bag of exhibits. These…

Altes Rathaus

Bamberg

Like a ship in dry dock, Bamberg's 1462 Old Town Hall was built on an artifical island in the Regnitz River, allegedly because the local bishop had…

Neue Residenz

Bamberg

This splendid episcopal palace gives you an eyeful of the lavish lifestyle of Bamberg’s prince-bishops who, between 1703 and 1802, occupied its 40-odd…