Fairy-Tale Road
Erected between 1707 and 1717 by Landgrave Karl and declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 2013, the 8.25m-high copper Herkules statue stands atop a…
Must-see attractions in Central Germany
Fairy-Tale Road
One of the joys of Marburg is simply strolling around its steeply winding medieval core. Its focal point is the Marktplatz; on the southern side is the…
Wörlitz Park & Schloss Wörlitz
Central Germany
With peacocks feeding on the lawn before a neo-Gothic house, a tree-lined stream flowing towards a Grecian-style temple and a gap in a hedge framing a…
Central Germany
You’ll find the four surviving Meisterhäuser – Gropiushaus, Haus Feininger, Haus Muche/Schlemmer and Haus Kandinsky/Klee – on leafy Ebertallee, a 15…
Nationalpark Kellerwald-Edersee
Fairy-Tale Road
Hesse's first national park encompasses the Kellerwald, one of the largest extant red-beech forests in Central Europe and a rare survivor of the last Ice…
Harz Mountains
Originally built in the 12th century to protect German Kaisers on hunting expeditions, Schloss Wernigerode was enlarged over the years to reflect late…
Erfurt
Situated on the Petersberg hill northwest of Domplatz, this 36-hectare citadel ranks among Europe’s largest and best-preserved baroque fortresses. While…
KZ-Gedenkstätte Mittelbau Dora
Harz Mountains
A deeply sobering place: at least 20,000 people were worked to death here building the tunnels beneath Mittelbau Dora, and the rockets now decaying within…
Central Germany
Even those with no previous interest in the Reformation will likely be fascinated by the state-of-the-art exhibits in the Lutherhaus, the former monastery…
Fairy-Tale Road
A living kernel of Fulda's long history, this early-9th-century church was once the cemetery chapel for the Benedictine monastery around which the town…
Central Germany
This large medieval castle on the hill above town is one of Freyburg’s highlights. It houses an excellent museum that illuminates various aspects of…
Fairy-Tale Road
Situated 6.5km west of Kassel Hauptbahnhof, and 3km west of Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station, in the enchanting Habichtswald nature park, this spectacular 560…
Fairy-Tale Road
Erstwhile home to Kaiser Wilhelm II, Wilhelmshöhe Palace (1786–98) at the foot of Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, today houses one of Germany’s greatest art…
Central Germany
It’s almost impossible to overstate the significance of this building, erected in 1925–26, as a school of Bauhaus art, design and architecture. Today a…
Erfurt
Erfurt's cathedral, where Martin Luther was ordained a priest, grew over the centuries from a simple 8th-century chapel into the stately Gothic pile of…
Harz Mountains
The performance of American avant-garde composer and musical theorist John Cage's Organ²/ASLSP began in the shell of the former Kirche St Burchardi in…
Fairy-Tale Road
Occupying a prime position atop the Weinberg bunker in the scenic Weinbergpark, the fabulous Grimmwelt could be described as an architect-designed walk-in…
Rammelsberg Museum & Besucherbergwerk
Harz Mountains
The shafts and buildings of this 1000-year-old mine are now a museum and Unesco World Heritage Site. Admission to the mine includes a German-language tour…
Fairy-Tale Road
Fulda's spectacular Stadtschloss (town castle) was built from 1706 to 1721 as the prince-abbots' residence. Designed by famed baroque architect Johann…
Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte
Central Germany
This phenomenal collection of major archaeological finds is one of the most significant in Europe. Priceless permanent exhibits shed light on the early to…
Fairy-Tale Road
Some 11km southwest of Hamelin, in pretty parkland near the Emmer River, sits this stunning palace, built in the Italianate Weser Renaissance style…
Fairy-Tale Road
Built by the knights of the Teutonic Order between 1235 and 1283 (its two high spires were added later), the Protestant Elisabethkirche is Germany’s…
Harz Mountains
Covering a total land mass of 24,700 hectares, Harz National Park is the first national park in Germany to occupy land in two states: Lower Saxony to the…
Fairy-Tale Road
This excellent contemporary art museum hosts temporary exhibitions and symposia exploring relevant, topical themes such as the re-emergence of fascism in…
Erfurt
It’s Luther lore galore at the monastery where the reformer lived from 1505 to 1511, where he was ordained as a monk and where he read his first Mass. You…
Erfurt
Flanked by photogenic half-timbered houses on both sides, this charming 1325 stone bridge is the only one north of the Alps that's still inhabited. To…
Fairy-Tale Road
Göttinger Wald is one of the best mixed forest stands of predominantly beech and oak in the region. It’s easily reached by following Herzberger…
Fairy-Tale Road
About 15km northwest of Kassel you'll find one of Germany's best-preserved and most beautiful rococo palaces, built by Landgrave Wilhelm VIII as a leisure…
Harz Mountains
Wernigerode's spectacular towered Rathaus (town hall) began life as a theatre around 1277, only to be given its mostly late-Gothic features, which loom…
Fairy-Tale Road
Built in 1270, the Old Town Hall once housed the merchants’ guild. Inside, later decorations added to its Great Hall include frescos of the coats of arms…
Central Germany
The leafy Törten Estate, built in Dessau’s south in the 1920s, is a prototype of the modern working-class estate. Although many of the 300-plus homes have…
Harz Mountains
It takes just over half an hour to walk from town, or a zippy three-minute ride on the Burgberg-Seilbahn, to reach the top of this humble peak (483m),…
Harz Mountains
One of the purest examples of Romanesque architecture from the Ottonian period is this church in Gernrode, 8km south of Quedlinburg. Construction of the…
Harz Mountains
The Schlossberg, on a 25m-high plateau above Quedlinburg, was initially graced with a church and residence under King Heinrich I (Henry the Fowler),…
Fairy-Tale Road
Perched at the highest point in Marburg is the massive Landgrave Castle, built between 1248 and 1300 by the first Hessian Landgrave, Heinrich I, on the…
Central Germany
Haus Muche/Schlemmer makes it apparent that the room proportions used by Bauhaus architects, and some of their design experiments, such as low balcony…
Erfurt
This is one of Europe's oldest Jewish houses of worship, dating in part to the 11th century. Following the 'Black Death' pogrom of 1349 it was used as an…
Central Germany
Did he or didn’t he nail those 95 theses to the door of the Schlosskirche? We’ll never know for sure, since the original portal was destroyed by fire in…
Harz Mountains
Lovely views await at the top of Rosstrappe peak, which takes its name from what is supposedly a horse’s hoof print, visible in stone on the cliff, left…
Central Germany
You’ll rub your eyes in disbelief when you first see it: a massive, water-filled bridge straddling the Elbe River. The Wasserstrassenkreuz is Europe’s…
