Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…