Must-see attractions in Erfurt, Weimar & Thuringia

Between 1937 and 1945, hidden from Weimarers and surrounding villagers, 250,000 men, women and children were incarcerated here, some 56,500 of whom were…

This horseshoe-shaped palace, surviving in exemplary condition as the largest early baroque palace in Germany, is a lavish, creaky-floored delight. Much…

Assembled by Duchess Anna Amalia (1739–1807), the power (and purse) behind Weimar's classical florescence, this Unesco-listed library has been beautifully…

Situated on the Petersberg hill northwest of Domplatz, this 36-hectare citadel ranks among Europe’s largest and best-preserved baroque fortresses. While…

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…

This is the world's leading museum on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany's literary colossus. It incorporates his home of 50 years, gifted by Duke Carl…

Built in 1765 and developed by the younger brother of Duke Carl August, this Unesco-listed country house flowered under the ownership of Duchess Anna…

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…

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…

The handsome neo-Renaissance building to the south of the Schloss Friedenstein now houses many of the artistic and historical treasures amassed by the…

The Kyffhäuser mountains were once home to one of Germany’s largest castles, the Reichsburg, built in the 12th century by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa …

This museum of visual arts sits just above Bad Frankenhausen, on the site where thousands died during the 1525 Peasants’ War. One literally unmissable…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The late-13th-century Severikirche – which together with the adjacent cathedral forms Efrurt's iconic architectural ensemble on Domberg (Cathedral Hill) –…

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,…

It’s easy to spend hours amid the riotous flower beds, Japanese rock garden, Schmetterlinghaus (butterfly house) and greenhouses of the rambling GDR-era…

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…