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…
Must-see attractions in Central Germany
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…
Thuringian Forest & the Saale Valley
These former alum slate mines (operational from 1530 to 1850) were opened for tours in 1914 and rank among the world’s most colourful caverns, imbued with…
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),…
Erfurt, Weimar & Thuringia
The Kyffhäuser mountains were once home to one of Germany’s largest castles, the Reichsburg, built in the 12th century by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa …
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…
Erfurt, Weimar & Thuringia
This museum of visual arts sits just above Bad Frankenhausen, on the site where thousands died during the 1525 Peasants’ War. One literally unmissable…
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…
Weimar
Following the Ilm, this Unesco-listed, 58-hectare park was landscaped between 1778 and 1828, and continues to provide a bucolic backdrop to old Weimar…
Erfurt, Weimar & Thuringia
Accidentally uncovered by copper-shale miners in 1865, this anhydrite cave is one of the largest of its type in Europe. Fifty-minute tours through the 13…
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…
Fairy-Tale Road
Many of Hamelin’s finest buildings were constructed in the Weser Renaissance style, which has strong Italian influences. Since 1912, two of the best have…
Central Germany
Magdeburg’s main historical landmark traces its roots to 937 when Otto I founded a Benedictine monastery and built it into a fully fledged cathedral…
Thuringian Forest & the Saale Valley
Carl Zeiss began building rudimentary microscopes in 1846 and, with Ernst Abbe’s help, developed the first scientific microscope in 1857. Together with…
Fairy-Tale Road
Named for an amateur archaeologist who discovered Stone, Bronze and Iron Age relics in the area (the seeds of the current collection), the Vonderau has…
Weimar
This unusual house was designed by its first occupant, Belgian art-nouveau architect-designer Henry van de Velde. In 1902 van de Velde founded the arts…
Erfurt
The late-13th-century Severikirche – which together with the adjacent cathedral forms Efrurt's iconic architectural ensemble on Domberg (Cathedral Hill) –…
Weimar
The 'new museum' is actually one of Germany's first, built as the Grand Ducal Museum in 1869. The building itself is a domed neo-Renaissance masterpiece,…
Marktkirche Unser Lieben Frauen
Central Germany
Halle’s central square has no fewer than five towers. One of these is the freestanding bell tower known as Roter Turm, but the other four rise up from the…
Central Germany
If you want to catch a glimpse of daily life in the region, especially life beyond the former Iron Curtain, pop by the Haus der Geschichte. The ground…
Erfurt
It’s easy to spend hours amid the riotous flower beds, Japanese rock garden, Schmetterlinghaus (butterfly house) and greenhouses of the rambling GDR-era…
Central Germany
The enormous Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul is a masterpiece of medieval architecture. While the crypt and the east choir feature elements of the…
Weimar
The poet and dramatist Friedrich von Schiller (a close friend of Goethe) lived here from 1802 until his early death, in 1805. Study up on the man, his…
Harz Mountains
This reconstructed 11th-century Romanesque palace is Goslar’s pride and joy. After centuries of decay, the building was resurrected in the 19th century…
Fairy-Tale Road
This lovely four-storey fachwerk house, where Johannes Brahms stayed in the summer of 1853, is home to an interesting series of exhibits on Göttingen's…
Fairy-Tale Road
Situated on the corner of Markt and Osterstrasse is the Hochzeitshaus (1610–17), built to house weddings and other ceremonies. The last structure built in…
Harz Mountains
Wernigerode's main thoroughfare, Breite Strasse, accommodates the pretty Cafe Wien building (1583) at No. 4, today a dignified cafe and worthwhile…
Erfurt
Housed inside a fully restored baroque building completed in 1712, the Angermuseum has a strong collection of medieval art, paintings ranging from the…
Central Germany
Closed for renovation in 2018, Haus Kandinsky/Klee is scheduled to reopen in 2019 and is most notable for the varying pastel shades in which Wassily…
Weimar
Situated in the former residential palace, which was rebuilt in 1789–1803 after a fire, the Schlossmuseum houses works of art dating from the Middle Ages…
Fairy-Tale Road
Inside the baroque Dom (cathedral), built from 1704 to 1712, you’ll find gilded furnishings, plenty of putti (figures of infant boys), some dramatic…
Central Germany
The late-Gothic Moritzburg castle forms a fantastic setting for this superb permanent collection of art. The addition of a glass and aluminium roof over…
Central Germany
This museum, expanded in 2013, occupies the former quarters of Philipp Melanchthon, an expert in ancient languages who helped Martin Luther translate the…
Central Germany
The sprawling 18th-century Park Georgium is anchored by its neoclassical palace, now a picture gallery showcasing German and Dutch old masters such as…
