Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Palaces
Augustusburg
Augustusburg Castle (officially a hunting lodge) crowns a hilltop on the edge of the Ore Mountains near Chemnitz in Saxony. Built in the 16th century for Elector Augustus, the white Renaissance complex is nicknamed the "Crown of the Ore Mo…
Palaces
Weimar
Schloss Belvedere is a Baroque summer palace perched on a wooded hill about four kilometers south of central Weimar. Surrounded by an orangery, a Russian garden and a sprawling landscape park, it is part of the Classical Weimar UNESCO Worl…
Palaces
Düsseldorf
Benrath Palace (Schloss Benrath) in southern Düsseldorf is a pink late-baroque pleasure palace built between 1755 and 1771 for Elector Palatine Karl Theodor by his court architect Nicolas de Pigage. Together with its wings, a long reflecti…
Palaces
Klütz
Schloss Bothmer in Klütz is one of the largest Baroque palace complexes in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, set just four kilometers from the Baltic Sea coast. Its red-brick wings, moats and pavilions look more like an English country house…
Palaces
Cottbus
Branitz Palace in Cottbus is the centerpiece of Branitz Park, the landscape garden that Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau created from 1845 and one of the finest in Germany. The palace has salons from around 1860, and the prince is buried…
Castles
Braunfels
Braunfels Castle (Schloss Braunfels) in central Hesse is a neo-Gothic palace perched on a basalt cone above the small half-timbered town of Braunfels. It has belonged to the same noble family for almost 800 years, and part of it is still l…
Palaces
Bruchsal
Bruchsal Palace (Schloss Bruchsal) was the residence of the prince-bishops of Speyer and is billed as the oldest ecclesiastical Baroque residence on the Upper Rhine. Its pink-and-yellow facades, forecourt and gardens make a rewarding stop…
Palaces
Bückeburg
Bückeburg Palace (Schloss Bückeburg) is the residence of the princes of Schaumburg-Lippe and one of the most striking palaces in the Weser Uplands of Lower Saxony. It grew from a medieval border fortress into a Renaissance palace with a mo…
Castles
Solingen
Schloss Burg (Burg Castle) in Solingen rises above the Wupper River as the ancestral seat of the Counts and Dukes of Berg and the landmark of the Bergisches Land region. Behind its gates, curtain wall and keep you will find a museum devote…
Palaces
Sankt Johann
Bürresheim Castle (Schloss Bürresheim) near Mayen in the Eifel region looks like a storybook illustration, with pointed turrets, half-timbered upper floors and a formal baroque garden. Built on a rocky spur above the Nette valley, it was n…
Palaces
Selm
Cappenberg Castle (Schloss Cappenberg) in Selm sits on a wooded ridge on the edge of the Münsterland, just north of the Ruhr region. This gleaming white Baroque complex grew out of the first Premonstratensian monastery in the German-speaki…
Palaces
Potsdam
Charlottenhof Palace in Potsdam's Sanssouci Park is a small Neoclassical summer villa designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel for the Prussian crown prince. Away from the crowds at Sanssouci Palace itself, it offers a calm look at how 1820s Pr…
Palaces
Sögel
Clemenswerth Palace in Sögel, in the Emsland region of northwest Lower Saxony, is a Rococo hunting lodge laid out like a star. A central main pavilion is surrounded by eight smaller pavilions, with a monastery garden, a gazebo and a large…
Palaces
Colditz
Colditz Castle in Saxony is a Renaissance castle on a porphyry cliff above the town of Colditz, and one of the most famous prisoner-of-war sites of World War II. From 1939 to 1945 it served as Oflag IV-C, a camp for Allied officers whose e…
Palaces
Dachau
Dachau Palace sits on a ridge above the old town of Dachau, just northwest of Munich, and was once a summer residence of the Wittelsbach dukes of Bavaria. Only one of its four wings survives, but it holds a magnificent banquet hall with on…
Palaces
Königswinter
Schloss Drachenburg in Königswinter looks like a castle straight out of a fairy tale: perched halfway up the Drachenfels hill, it bristles with towers, turrets and lavish halls high above the Rhine. Built in the 1880s, it is one of Germany…
Palaces
Jüchen
Schloss Dyck near Jüchen is one of the most important moated castles in the Rhineland, set in a 53-hectare English landscape garden. The yellow main castle with its outer courtyards sits on four islands in a small stream and mirrors itself…
Palaces
Coburg
Ehrenburg Palace (Schloss Ehrenburg) in Coburg was the town residence of the dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and is dressed in a rare English-style Gothic Revival facade designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Inside you will find Baroque stuc…
Palaces
Gotha
Friedenstein Palace (Schloss Friedenstein) in Gotha, Thuringia, is described by its foundation as the largest palace built in 17th-century Germany. Set on a hill above the town and never destroyed, the early Baroque complex holds lavish du…
Palaces
Berlin
Glienicke Palace in southwest Berlin is a Neoclassical summer residence that Karl Friedrich Schinkel remodeled in Italian style for Prince Carl of Prussia. It stands in Klein-Glienicke Park right next to the Glienicke Bridge, on the border…
Museums
Schleswig
Gottorf Castle (Schloss Gottorf) in Schleswig is the former seat of the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorf and today the home of the Schleswig-Holstein State Museums. Its long white Baroque facade rises from an island at the head of the Schlei inle…
Palaces
Torgau
Hartenfels Castle in Torgau is one of the most important Renaissance palaces in Germany and the largest fully preserved palace of the early Renaissance in the country. On the banks of the Elbe in Saxony, it is known for its free-standing s…
Castles
Schwangau
Hohenschwangau Castle in Schwangau, near Füssen in southern Bavaria, is the yellow castle facing Neuschwanstein across the valley and the place where King Ludwig II spent his childhood. Smaller and more lived-in than its famous neighbor, i…
Palaces
Aschaffenburg
Johannisburg Palace (Schloss Johannisburg) in Aschaffenburg is one of the most important Renaissance palaces in Germany and the defining landmark of this Bavarian town on the Main River. Built of red sandstone with four towering corner tur…