Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Palaces
Rastatt
Rastatt Palace (Residenzschloss Rastatt) is the oldest Baroque residence on the Upper Rhine, built in the style of Versailles for the Margraves of Baden-Baden. Its pink facade and huge forecourt make a good stop for anyone looking for thin…
Palaces
Ahrensburg
Ahrensburg Palace (Schloss Ahrensburg) is a white Renaissance moated palace in the Hunnau valley near Hamburg and one of the best-known manor houses in Schleswig-Holstein. Completed in 1585, it mirrors its green-capped turrets in the surro…
Palaces
Dresden
Albrechtsberg Palace (Schloss Albrechtsberg) in Dresden's Loschwitz district is the grandest of the three Elbe palaces, a Neoclassical villa-palace on a hillside above the river with terraces, ponds and landscaped parkland. If you are look…
Palaces
Brühl
Augustusburg Palace in Brühl, between Cologne and Bonn, is one of Europe's finest Rococo palaces and, together with the nearby Falkenlust hunting lodge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. Its grand staircase by Balthasar Neumann is a…
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
Potsdam
Babelsberg Palace in Potsdam is the Gothic Revival summer home of Prince William of Prussia, later Emperor William I, and his wife Augusta. With turrets, battlements and bay windows inspired by English country houses, it rises above the Ha…
Palaces
Berlin
Bellevue Palace (Schloss Bellevue) in Berlin is the official residence and workplace of the German Federal President and one of the capital's best-known neoclassical buildings. The white palace stands on Spreeweg on the northern edge of th…
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
Wiesbaden
Biebrich Palace (Schloss Biebrich) in Wiesbaden is one of the finest baroque palaces on the Rhine. Its pink-and-white facade and domed central rotunda face the river directly, while behind it stretches a large landscaped park with ponds, o…
Palaces
München
Blutenburg Castle in Munich's Obermenzing district is a late medieval moated castle on the Würm river and one of the few medieval castle complexes near the city center. A small lake, a manor house, defensive walkways and a late Gothic chap…
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…
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…
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
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
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…