Must-see attractions in The Romantic Road

The vast Unesco-listed Residenz, built by 18th-century architect Balthasar Neumann as the home of the local prince-bishops, is one of Germany’s most…

Looming over the Wörnitz River, the medieval covered parapets, towers, turrets, keep and red-tiled roofs of the 12th-century Schloss Harburg are so…

Schloss Weikersheim is the finest palace on the entire Romantic Road. Renaissance to the core, it's surrounded by beautiful formal gardens inspired by…

The legacy of Jakob Fugger ‘The Rich’ lives on at Augsburg’s Catholic welfare settlement, the Fuggerei, which is the oldest of its kind in existence…

Often regarded as the first Renaissance church in Germany, the rather plain-looking (and well-hidden) St Anna Kirche is accessed via a set of cloisters…

Enjoy panoramic city and vineyard views from this hulking fortress whose construction was initiated around 1200 by the local prince-bishops who governed…

Highlights of the Reichsstadtmuseum, housed in a former Dominican convent, include the Rothenburger Passion (1494), a cycle of 12 panels by Martinus…

If you're glad Christmas comes but once every 365 days, then stay well clear of the Käthe Wohlfahrt Weihnachtsdorf, a Yuletide superstore that also houses…

One of the few places of worship in Bavaria to charge admission, Rothenburg's Lutheran parish church was begun in the 14th century and finished in the…

Würzburg's highly unusual cathedral has a Romanesque core that has been altered many times over the centuries. The elaborate stucco work of the chancel…

Adjoining the Rathaus, the 1659-built Grafeneckart houses a scale model of the WWII bombing. It starkly depicts the extent of the damage to the city…

In the Altstadt, this satisfyingly symmetrical church stands on the site where three ill-fated Irish missionaries who tried to convert Duke Gosbert to…

With time and fresh legs, a 2.5km circular walk around the unbroken ring of town walls gives a sense of the importance medieval people placed on defending…

Augsburg’s cathedral has its origins in the 10th century but was Gothicised and enlarged in the 14th and 15th centuries. The star treasures here are the…

This huge 15th-century church with its slender bell tower was built by Matthäus von Ensingen, architect of Bern Cathedral. The barrel nave is stuccoed to…

In a born-again historic granary right on the Main River, you'll find this absorbing art museum with choice artworks from the 19th to the 21st centuries…

The Maximilianmuseum occupies two patrician townhouses joined by a statue-studded courtyard covered by a glass-and-steel roof. Highlights include a…

The star attractions at this gruesomely fascinating museum are medieval implements of torture and punishment. Exhibits include chastity belts, masks of…

Half museum, half junkyard retirement home/graveyard for locos that have long puffed their last, this trainspotter's paradise occupies a disused engine…

Opened in 1998 to celebrate local boy Bertolt Brecht's 100th birthday, this house museum is the birthplace of the famous playwright and poet, where he…