Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
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
Potsdam
Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam is where the Allied leaders met in the summer of 1945 to decide the fate of postwar Germany. Built as the last palace of the Hohenzollern dynasty, it looks more like an English country manor than a royal resid…
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
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…
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
Güstrow
Güstrow Palace (Schloss Güstrow) is one of the most important Renaissance palaces in northern Germany. With its richly decorated facades, towers and courtyards, it sits in the center of Güstrow in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and was a re…
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…
Castles
Lichtenstein
Lichtenstein Castle in the village of Honau, part of Lichtenstein in Baden-Württemberg, is one of the most photogenic castles in Germany. Perched on a narrow limestone pillar at the edge of the Swabian Alb, about 800 feet above the Echaz v…
Castles
Pattensen
Marienburg Castle (Schloss Marienburg) near Pattensen, about 25 km south of Hanover, is a Gothic Revival fairy-tale castle built for the royal House of Hanover. Rising above the Leine Valley, it is one of northern Germany's most striking 1…
Palaces
Bedburg-Hau
Moyland Castle near Bedburg-Hau on the Lower Rhine is a neo-Gothic moated castle that doubles as one of the region's most important museums of modern art. It holds the world's largest collection of works by Joseph Beuys, and its historic p…
Palaces
Münster
Münster Palace (Schloss Münster) is the former residence of the prince-bishops of Münster and today the main building of the University of Münster. Designed by the Westphalian Baroque architect Johann Conrad Schlaun, its red-brick and sand…
Palaces
Nordkirchen
Nordkirchen Castle (Schloss Nordkirchen) in Germany's Münsterland region is a Baroque moated palace so grand that it is nicknamed the "Westphalian Versailles." It stands on an island surrounded by water, avenues and formal gardens, and the…
Palaces
Raesfeld
Raesfeld Castle (Schloss Raesfeld) in the Münsterland region is a Renaissance moated castle with the tallest tower of any castle in Westphalia. It sits between moats and parkland, and an old deer park invites long walks. You can admire the…
Palaces
Rheinsberg
Rheinsberg Palace, on the shore of Lake Grienerick about 100 km northwest of Berlin, is one of the most charming palaces in Brandenburg. Here the young Crown Prince Frederick, later Frederick the Great of Prussia, spent what he called the…