Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
Hamburg
The Altona Fish Market (Altonaer Fischmarkt) in Hamburg is a Sunday-morning ritual that has been running for more than 300 years. Before most of the city wakes up, the Elbe waterfront between St. Pauli and Altona fills with market criers,…
Landmarks
Hamburg
The Jungfernstieg is Hamburg's most famous waterfront promenade, running along the Binnenalster (Inner Alster Lake) in the heart of the city. From its wide steps you look across the water to the Alster Fountain, white excursion boats and t…
Gardens & parks
Dresden
The Großer Garten (Great Garden) is Dresden's largest park, a Baroque landscape stretching almost 2 km (1.2 miles) just east of the Old Town. At its heart stands the Palais im Großen Garten, one of the city's earliest Baroque buildings, su…
Churches & monasteries
Köln
Great St. Martin Church in Cologne (Groß St. Martin) is one of the city's twelve great Romanesque churches, and its massive crossing tower is the second landmark on Cologne's riverfront skyline after the cathedral. Rising above the colorfu…
Landmarks
Frankfurt am Main
The Eiserner Steg ("Iron Footbridge") in Frankfurt am Main is the city's best-known pedestrian bridge and one of its landmarks. The riveted steel span links the Old Town around Römerberg square with the Sachsenhausen district and the Museu…
Churches & monasteries
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt Cathedral – officially the Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew (Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus) – is the largest church in Frankfurt am Main and one of the most important sites of German history. For centuries the prince-electors c…
Old towns & squares
Frankfurt am Main
The New Frankfurt Old Town (Neue Frankfurter Altstadt), between the cathedral and Römerberg square, is the youngest and one of the most photographed parts of Frankfurt am Main. Built between 2012 and 2018 on the site of a 1970s concrete of…
Landmarks
Leipzig
The Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus) in Leipzig is the city's most photographed building and one of the finest Renaissance town halls in Germany. Its long facade, decorative gables, arcades and off-center tower dominate the Markt, Leipzig's m…
Landmarks
Leipzig
Auerbachs Keller in Leipzig is probably the most famous restaurant in Germany. Goethe immortalized this vaulted wine cellar beneath the Mädler Passage in his drama "Faust," and visitors from around the world still come to dine where the le…
Museums
Leipzig
The Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig (Museum der bildenden Künste, or MdbK) is one of Germany's major art museums, housed in a striking glass cube in the middle of the old town. Its collection runs from late medieval art and Old Masters such as…
Churches & monasteries
Marienmünster
Marienmünster Abbey (Abtei Marienmünster) is a former Benedictine monastery founded in 1128 in the rolling Weser Uplands of eastern North Rhine-Westphalia. Its church, with twin pointed west towers and a Baroque crossing dome, rises above…
Landmarks
Heidelberg
The Old Bridge in Heidelberg (Alte Brücke) is the red sandstone bridge that has defined the city's skyline since the 1780s. It spans the Neckar River between the Old Town and the Neuenheim district, and from its arches you get the classic…
Castles
Baden-Baden
Hohenbaden Castle, known locally as the Old Castle (Altes Schloss), towers above the spa town of Baden-Baden in Germany's Black Forest. It was the ancestral seat of the Margraves of Baden, the family that gave its name to the whole region.…
Old towns & squares
Bautzen
Bautzen's Old Town sits on a granite bluff above the Spree River in eastern Saxony, crowned by medieval towers, bastions and Baroque townhouses. Often called the "city of towers," it is also the cultural capital of the Sorbs, a Slavic mino…
Old towns & squares
Celle
The old town of Celle is one of Germany's most complete half-timbered townscapes: around the market square, the Stechbahn and Zöllnerstraße, the town counts nearly 500 timber-framed houses with painted facades, carved beams and gilded insc…
Old towns & squares
Düsseldorf
The Altstadt (Old Town) of Düsseldorf is the historic heart of the city and one of Germany's liveliest nightlife districts. Packed into roughly half a square kilometer on the Rhine are churches, museums, a Renaissance town hall and around…
Old towns & squares
Goslar
The old town of Goslar on the northern edge of the Harz mountains has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992, together with the Rammelsberg mine and the Upper Harz water management system. More than 1,500 half-timbered houses, slate-…
Old towns & squares
Lüneburg
Lüneburg's old town is one of the finest examples of brick Gothic architecture in northern Germany, a place of stepped gables, leaning facades and cobbled squares built on the wealth of salt. The town hall on the market square, the long sq…
Old towns & squares
Passau
Passau's Old Town sits on a narrow peninsula where the Danube and Inn rivers meet, with the smaller Ilz joining just opposite, which is why Passau is called the "City of Three Rivers." Pastel Baroque houses, the green-domed St. Stephen's C…
Old towns & squares
Pirna
Pirna's Old Town and Sonnenstein Castle make a rewarding stop on the Elbe River between Dresden and the sandstone cliffs of Saxon Switzerland. The market square still looks much as the painter Canaletto (Bernardo Bellotto) captured it in t…
Old towns & squares
Stralsund
The Old Town of Stralsund is one of the top things to do on Germany's Baltic coast: a medieval Hanseatic port set on an island between the sea and three town ponds, crowned by a spectacular brick Gothic town hall and three giant churches.…
Old towns & squares
Tübingen
The old town of Tübingen is one of the most charming historic centers in southern Germany: colorful half-timbered houses lining the Neckar River, steep cobbled lanes, a painted town hall and a Renaissance castle on the hill above. Only a s…
Old towns & squares
Wismar
The Old Town of Wismar is one of the best things to do on Germany's Baltic coast: a remarkably intact Hanseatic port with a vast market square, towering red-brick Gothic churches and an old harbor where fishing boats still tie up. Together…
Coast & islands
Wittdün auf Amrum
Amrum is one of the three large North Frisian islands and is famous for the Kniepsand, a sand beach up to 1.5 kilometers wide. Behind the beach rise dunes, heath and pine forest, and inland lie thatched-roof Frisian villages. The island is…