Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Castles
Kahla
Perched on a hilltop 395 metres above sea level, Leuchtenburg dominates the Saale valley so strikingly that it is known as the "Queen of the Saale Valley". Its history is anything but regal: over 800 years it has been a seat of power, a pr…
Castles
Kassel
Löwenburg Castle in Kassel looks like a crumbling medieval fortress, but it is actually a romantic fantasy built at the end of the 18th century. Set in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2013, this artificial ruin wa…
Castles
Marburg
Marburg Castle (Landgrafenschloss) crowns the hill above the medieval old town of Marburg in Hesse, about an hour north of Frankfurt by train. Begun in the 11th century, it became the first seat of the Landgraves of Hesse and hosted the 15…
Castles
Kulmbach
Plassenburg is a massive hilltop castle above the town of Kulmbach in northern Bavaria, and one of the most impressive Renaissance fortresses in southern Germany. Once a stronghold of the Hohenzollern dynasty, the family that later ruled P…
Castles
Annweiler am Trifels
Trifels Castle (Reichsburg Trifels) near Annweiler am Trifels is one of the most storied castles in southwestern Germany. Perched on a sandstone summit in the Palatinate Forest, it served the Salian and Hohenstaufen emperors as a stronghol…
Castles
Altenburg
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa stayed six times between 1165 and 1185 on a porphyry rock above the town of Altenburg, and in 1455 two Saxon princes were kidnapped from here. Today Altenburg Castle shows princely living quarters, a Baroque ba…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Castles
Bielefeld
You can see it from the centre of Bielefeld: the round tower of Sparrenburg Castle, standing some 60 metres above the old town on the Sparrenberg in the Teutoburg Forest. The Counts of Ravensberg built a castle here before 1250, and in the…
Castles
Coburg
Veste Coburg is a vast medieval fortress perched about 160 meters above the town of Coburg in northern Bavaria, close to the border with Thuringia. Often called the "Crown of Franconia," it is one of the largest and best-preserved castle c…
Castles
Passau
From Passau's old town you see it all the time: high above the left bank of the Danube stands Veste Oberhaus, its façade marked with a large 1499, written with the medieval "half eight" for the four. The castle sits 105 metres above the va…
Castles
Büren
Wewelsburg is a triangular Weser Renaissance castle near Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia, and a place with a difficult history. Built as a residence of the prince-bishops of Paderborn, it was chosen by Heinrich Himmler as an ideologica…
Castles
Eichstätt
Willibaldsburg Castle towers over the town of Eichstätt and the Altmühl Valley in Upper Bavaria, roughly halfway between Munich and Nuremberg. For centuries it was the seat of the prince-bishops of Eichstätt. Today it houses the Jura Museu…