Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
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…
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
Eichenzell
A few kilometres south of Fulda, a long, pale Baroque façade is reflected in a pond, crowned by a tower with a curved cupola. Fasanerie Palace was the summer residence of the prince-abbots of Fulda and later of the Landgraves of Hesse. Its…
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…
Castles
Glücksburg
Like a white cube, Glücksburg Castle seems to rise straight out of the water. The Renaissance castle on the Flensburg Fjord stands on a 2.5-metre granite base in a pond that once swallowed an entire monastery. It is the ancestral seat of t…
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
Dorsten
A large pond with islands joined by bridges, and on them a castle whose towers are mirrored in the water on still days: Lembeck Castle is a Baroque moated castle with outer bailey, main house and park. It lies in the Dorsten district of Le…
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…
Palaces
Ludwigslust
Ludwigslust Palace (Schloss Ludwigslust) in northern Germany's Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was the main residence of the Dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and is often called the "Versailles of Mecklenburg." A palace, a stone cascade, a cour…
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…
Castles
Mespelbrunn
Mespelbrunn Castle lies in a secluded side valley of the Elsava in the Spessart hills between Aschaffenburg and Würzburg, its round tower and stepped gables reflected in the pond. It has belonged to the same family since the early 15th cen…