Central Germany
The Stadt- und Pfarrkirche St Marien (Stadtkirche Wittenberg) was where Martin Luther’s ecumenical revolution began, with the world’s first Protestant…
Must-see attractions in Central Germany
Fairy-Tale Road
Situated within Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, the faux-ruined 'Lion's Castle' was built between 1793 and 1801 in a 'medieval' style so ornately romantic it's…
Fairy-Tale Road
Bodenwerder’s principal attraction struggles a little with the difficult task of conveying the chaos and fun associated with the ‘liar baron’ – a man who…
Erfurt, Weimar & Thuringia
The oldest of the three Drei Gleichen ('Three Like') castles, Mühlburg was first mentioned in 704 and possibly existed in some form as early as 319 …
Central Germany
The Elbauenpark was carved out of the landscape for a 1999 garden exhibition, and has rose, sculpture and other gardens along with a butterfly house. Its…
Weimar
Goethe and what was thought to be Schiller are interred at the Historischer Friedhof (Historical Cemetery) in this neoclassical mausoleum, along with Duke…
Erfurt
Dating to the late 12th century, the old university church boasts a magnificent organ (1652), made by local master Ludwig Compenius, and was a key…
Central Germany
This piglet-pink building with trees growing from its facade and meadows sprouting on its rooftops was the final design of Viennese artist Friedensreich…
Thuringian Forest & the Saale Valley
One of the oldest maintained town halls in Germany, Jena’s Rathaus (1377) is graced with an astronomical clock in its baroque tower. Every hour, on the…
Erfurt, Weimar & Thuringia
The Gothic Divi-Blasii-Kirche was built by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th and 14th centuries based on the style of French Gothic cathedrals. It…
Erfurt, Weimar & Thuringia
The northernmost of the 'Three Like' castles that gave their name to the Drei Gleichen municipality southeast of Gotha, this 11th-century ruin used to be…
Erfurt, Weimar & Thuringia
Now housing a hotel and restaurant, this well-preserved hilltop castle was originally built as a bastion against Magyar incursions in the 10th century,…
Thuringian Forest & the Saale Valley
Dominating Eisenach's central square, this is the baptismal church of St Elizabeth and Johann Sebastian Bach. It's also where Martin Luther sang as a boy…
Thuringian Forest & the Saale Valley
Dominating the northern side of Markt is the baroque facade of this former ducal residence, now housing tourist and municipal offices and the Thuringian…
Fairy-Tale Road
Billed as ‘a meditative space for funerary art’, this atypical museum examines attitudes to death and burial practices, and challenges western reluctance…
Erfurt, Weimar & Thuringia
Hauptmarkt is dominated by the picturesque Rathaus, with its colourful Renaissance facade and 35m-tall tower. It started out as a storage house in 1567,…
Historisches Museum Schloss Philippsruhe
Fairy-Tale Road
Located within the early-18th-century Philippsruhe Palace, this museum displays 17th- to 20th-century art and crafts (faience, silverwork and the like),…
Harz Mountains
Oberpfarrkirchhof surrounds the Gothic- and later, neo-Gothic–styled Sylvestrikirche. Here you’ll also find the Gadenstedtsches Haus (1582) with its…
Central Germany
The exhibits here consist mostly of photos, documents and reams of biographical text about one of Germany’s greatest philosophers. Friedrich Nietzsche …
Harz Mountains
Germany’s earliest half-timbered houses were built using high perpendicular struts known as Ständerbau. The building dating to 1310 that now houses…
Harz Mountains
The Brockenhaus, at the summit of the Brocken, has a cafe, interactive displays and a viewing platform. From May to October, rangers conduct one-hour…
Fairy-Tale Road
Over three floors of a former tobacco warehouse, this interesting museum traces the history of the French Hugeunot refugees in Germany. The exhibits…
Thuringian Forest & the Saale Valley
This late-Gothic church, one of the largest in Thuringia, is famous for having Martin Luther’s original bronze gravestone, modelled on a portrait by Lucas…
Fairy-Tale Road
Reached through a delightful garden strewn with stone carvings, the Domdechaneigarten, this museum occupies the cathedral's former seminary chapel. Relics…
Harz Mountains
This purpose-built gallery exhibits the work of influential Bauhaus artist Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956), who was born in New York and came to Germany at…
Thuringian Forest & the Saale Valley
This museum, housed in the 1866 villa once owned by writer Fritz Reuter, hosts the most extensive collection on the composer Richard Wagner’s life and…
Weimar
From 1776 to 1782 Goethe lived in this house, a cottage given to him by Carl August in order to lure him to Weimar. It's spare in style externally, cosy…
Weimar
Perched atop an artificial bluff in Park an der Ilm, the 'Roman House' was Weimar’s first neoclassical dwelling, built under Goethe’s supervision between…
Harz Mountains
The early classicist poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803) is one of Quedlinburg’s most celebrated sons. He was born in this 16th-century house,…
Harz Mountains
Set in a 16th-century half-timbered house, this museum has changing exhibits of modern art, including works by the most recent winner of the prestigious…
Central Germany
This church features a stunning Steinbilder-Bibel (stone-picture Bible; 1585), the only one of its kind in Europe, and a wittily decorated pulpit. While…
Thuringian Forest & the Saale Valley
Built in 1972, but deceptively modern in appearance, the 128m-tall cylindrical JenTower was intended to be a Zeiss research facility, but proved…
Weimar
Dedicated in 1857, sculptor Ernst Rietschel's bronze statue of Goethe and Schiller, standing side by side holding a laurel wreath, was Germany's first …
Thuringian Forest & the Saale Valley
Saalfeld's former 13th-century Franciscan monastery, dissolved in the Reformation, now houses the Stadtmuseum. Its major allure is the celestial building…
Fairy-Tale Road
Built expressly to augment the Museum Fridericianum as the primary exhibition space for Kassel's quinquennial art extravaganza Documenta, the Halle hosts…
Harz Mountains
The Domvorhalle is all that remains of the once-magnificent St Simon and St Jude Cathedral. Within it you can see the 11th-century Kaiserstuhl, the throne…
Erfurt, Weimar & Thuringia
Secularised in 1802, this austere 13th-century Franciscan church today houses a worthwhile museum about the German Peasants’ War and the Reformation. It…
Weimar
Weimar is the 1919 birthplace of the influential Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture. This modest museum on Theaterplatz closed in early 2018,…
Central Germany
This oak tree marks the spot where, on 10 December 1520, Luther burned the papal bull (a treatise issued by then-Pope Leo X ordering his excommunication)…
Harz Mountains
This museum offers a good overview of the natural and cultural history of Goslar and the Harz. One room contains the treasures from the former Goslar Dom …
