Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
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
Oranienburg
A princess from the Netherlands, a hunting lodge on the Havel and an elector who gave his wife an entire estate with its villages: that is how the story of Oranienburg Palace begins. It is the oldest Baroque palace in the Mark Brandenburg…
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…
Palaces
Mönchengladbach
Schloss Rheydt (Rheydt Castle) in Mönchengladbach is a Renaissance moated castle on the Lower Rhine and now a city museum. Surrounded by water-filled moats, the complex of gatehouse, outer court and manor house is a rewarding stop in North…
Palaces
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken Palace (Schloss Saarbrücken) rises above the Saar River in the old part of Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland on the French border. The white Baroque facade is the city's best-known landmark, but the real surprise lies beneat…
Palaces
Memmelsdorf
Schloss Seehof in Memmelsdorf, just outside Bamberg in northern Bavaria, is the baroque summer palace of the former prince-bishops of Bamberg. The yellow four-winged palace with its distinctive onion-domed corner towers stands in a large f…
Castles
Sigmaringen
Sigmaringen Castle (Schloss Sigmaringen) sits on a limestone rock high above the Danube and is one of the most striking castles in Baden-Württemberg. Once the seat of the Princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, it combines a huge hall of arms…
Palaces
Stuttgart
Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg wanted a retreat in his hunting grounds and called it "Solitude". What he got was a Rococo pleasure palace with a dome, sweeping staircases and terraces on a ridge west of Stuttgart, with a 13 km, ruler-strai…
Palaces
Koblenz
Stolzenfels Castle (Schloss Stolzenfels) near Koblenz is a neo-Gothic palace high above the Rhine and a key example of Prussian Rhine Romanticism. It belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage site Upper Middle Rhine Valley and faces the mouth o…
Palaces
Regensburg
St. Emmeram Palace, usually just called Thurn und Taxis Palace, is still home to the princely family whose ancestors built up the postal system of the Holy Roman Empire. The palace grew out of the buildings of the medieval Imperial Abbey o…
Palaces
Veitshöchheim
Veitshöchheim Palace (Schloss Veitshöchheim) is the former summer retreat of the prince-bishops of Würzburg, set in one of Europe's finest surviving Rococo gardens. Located about 5 miles (8 km) down the Main River from Würzburg in northern…
Churches & monasteries
Höxter
Corvey Abbey near Höxter on the Weser River is one of Germany's most important monastic sites and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014. Its centerpiece is the Carolingian westwork, built in the 9th century and the oldest surviving struc…
Palaces
Schwetzingen
Schwetzingen Palace and its gardens, the former summer residence of the Electors Palatine, rank among the finest historic gardens in Europe. Set between Heidelberg and Mannheim in Baden-Württemberg, the roughly 70-hectare (170-acre) park b…
Palaces
Edenkoben
Villa Ludwigshöhe near Edenkoben is the summer palace King Ludwig I of Bavaria built on the edge of the Palatinate Forest. Set above the vineyards of the German Wine Route, this neoclassical villa in Italian style offers sweeping views ove…
Palaces
Müglitztal
Weesenstein Castle (Schloss Weesenstein) in the Müglitz valley is an eight-story castle clinging to a rock above the river, famous for having been built partly from top to bottom. Located south of Dohna in Saxony, it is one of the more unu…
Palaces
Weikersheim
Weikersheim Palace (Schloss Weikersheim) is a Renaissance palace in the Tauber Valley of northern Baden-Württemberg and the ancestral seat of the Hohenlohe family. Its highlights are a splendid knights' hall with a painted coffered ceiling…
Palaces
Weilburg
At Weilburg the river Lahn loops almost all the way round a rocky spur, and Weilburg Palace sits right on top of it. The complex stretches 400 m along the eastern edge of the hill and covers nearly half of the old town. At its heart is a 1…
Palaces
Pommersfelden
Schloss Weissenstein in Pommersfelden is a showpiece of Franconian Baroque and is still owned by the Counts of Schönborn. Built as a country residence for a prince-bishop, it has a spectacular staircase hall, a marble hall and a picture ga…
Palaces
Wernigerode
Wernigerode Castle (Schloss Wernigerode) rises above the half-timbered town of Wernigerode on the northern edge of the Harz Mountains, and it looks like it was lifted from a fairy tale. Its towers and steep roofs date largely from a lavish…
Palaces
Schmalkalden
Above the old town of Schmalkalden stands a castle that the centuries have passed by almost without a trace. Landgrave William IV of Hesse began building the Wilhelmsburg as a secondary residence in 1584, and because it was hardly used lat…
Palaces
Kassel
Wilhelmshöhe Palace in Kassel is the grand Neoclassical centerpiece of the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2013. Behind its columned facade hangs one of Germany's finest Old Masters collections, with paintings by…