Must-see attractions in Central Germany

  • A vertical shot of the Hercules monument in Wilhelmshoehe Castle Park in Kassel, Germany.

    Herkules

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Erected between 1707 and 1717 by Landgrave Karl and declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 2013, the 8.25m-high copper Herkules statue stands atop a…

  • The historical townhall and market place of Marburg, Germany.

    Altstadt

    Fairy-Tale Road

    One of the joys of Marburg is simply strolling around its steeply winding medieval core. Its focal point is the Marktplatz; on the southern side is the…

  • Wörlitz Park, Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

    Wörlitz Park & Schloss Wörlitz

    Central Germany

    With peacocks feeding on the lawn before a neo-Gothic house, a tree-lined stream flowing towards a Grecian-style temple and a gap in a hedge framing a…

  • The Bauhaus master house building designed by architect Walter Gropius in 1925, Dessau, Germany.

    Meisterhäuser

    Central Germany

    You’ll find the four surviving Meisterhäuser – Gropiushaus, Haus Feininger, Haus Muche/Schlemmer and Haus Kandinsky/Klee – on leafy Ebertallee, a 15…

  • Old tree and roots at Edersee lake, at Kellerwald-Edersee National Park, Waldeck-Frankenburg, Hessen, Germany.

    Nationalpark Kellerwald-Edersee

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Hesse's first national park encompasses the Kellerwald, one of the largest extant red-beech forests in Central Europe and a rare survivor of the last Ice…

  • Historic Wernigerode Castle surrounded by an autumn landscape.

    Schloss Wernigerode

    Harz Mountains

    Originally built in the 12th century to protect German Kaisers on hunting expeditions, Schloss Wernigerode was enlarged over the years to reflect late…

  • Main gate of Petersberg Citadel in Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany.

    Zitadelle Petersberg

    Erfurt

    Situated on the Petersberg hill northwest of Domplatz, this 36-hectare citadel ranks among Europe’s largest and best-preserved baroque fortresses. While…

  • Concentration camp KZ Mittelbau Dora.

    KZ-Gedenkstätte Mittelbau Dora

    Harz Mountains

    A deeply sobering place: at least 20,000 people were worked to death here building the tunnels beneath Mittelbau Dora, and the rockets now decaying within…

  • Lutherhaus in Wittenberg, Germany.

    Lutherhaus

    Central Germany

    Even those with no previous interest in the Reformation will likely be fascinated by the state-of-the-art exhibits in the Lutherhaus, the former monastery…

  • St. Michael's church in Fulda, Germany.

    Michaelskirche

    Fairy-Tale Road

    A living kernel of Fulda's long history, this early-9th-century church was once the cemetery chapel for the Benedictine monastery around which the town…

  • Neuenburg Castle, Freyburg, Germany.

    Schloss Neuenburg

    Central Germany

    This large medieval castle on the hill above town is one of Freyburg’s highlights. It houses an excellent museum that illuminates various aspects of…

  • Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Situated 6.5km west of Kassel Hauptbahnhof, and 3km west of Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station, in the enchanting Habichtswald nature park, this spectacular 560…

  • Stadtschloss

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Fulda's spectacular Stadtschloss (town castle) was built from 1706 to 1721 as the prince-abbots' residence. Designed by famed baroque architect Johann…

  • Schloss Wilhelmshöhe

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Erstwhile home to Kaiser Wilhelm II, Wilhelmshöhe Palace (1786–98) at the foot of Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, today houses one of Germany’s greatest art…

  • Bauhausgebäude

    Central Germany

    It’s almost impossible to overstate the significance of this building, erected in 1925–26, as a school of Bauhaus art, design and architecture. Today a…

  • Erfurter Dom

    Erfurt

    Erfurt's cathedral, where Martin Luther was ordained a priest, grew over the centuries from a simple 8th-century chapel into the stately Gothic pile of…

  • John Cage Orgel Kunst Projekt

    Harz Mountains

    The performance of American avant-garde composer and musical theorist John Cage's Organ²/ASLSP began in the shell of the former Kirche St Burchardi in…

  • Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte

    Central Germany

    This phenomenal collection of major archaeological finds is one of the most significant in Europe. Priceless permanent exhibits shed light on the early to…

  • Grimmwelt

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Occupying a prime position atop the Weinberg bunker in the scenic Weinbergpark, the fabulous Grimmwelt could be described as an architect-designed walk-in…

  • Rammelsberg Museum & Besucherbergwerk

    Harz Mountains

    The shafts and buildings of this 1000-year-old mine are now a museum and Unesco World Heritage Site. Admission to the mine includes a German-language tour…

  • Burgruine Polle

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Sitting on a crag in a loop of the Weser River in the little village of Polle, 15km from Bodenwerder, this wonderfully accessible castle ruin (c 1200),…

  • Schloss Hämelschenburg.

    Schloss Hämelschenburg

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Some 11km southwest of Hamelin, in pretty parkland near the Emmer River, sits this stunning palace, built in the Italianate Weser Renaissance style…

  • Church Elisabethkirche in Marburg, Germany.

    Elisabethkirche

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Built by the knights of the Teutonic Order between 1235 and 1283 (its two high spires were added later), the Protestant Elisabethkirche is Germany’s…

  • National Park Harz.

    Harz National Park

    Harz Mountains

    Covering a total land mass of 24,700 hectares, Harz National Park is the first national park in Germany to occupy land in two states: Lower Saxony to the…

  • The Fridericianum museum in the center of Kassel, Germany.

    Fridericianum

    Fairy-Tale Road

    This excellent contemporary art museum hosts temporary exhibitions and symposia exploring relevant, topical themes such as the re-emergence of fascism in…

  • St. Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt, Germany.

    Augustinerkloster

    Erfurt

    It’s Luther lore galore at the monastery where the reformer lived from 1505 to 1511, where he was ordained as a monk and where he read his first Mass. You…

  • Medieval arch bridge Krämerbrücke crossing river Gera with half-timbered shops and houses in the city of Erfurt, Germany.

    Krämerbrücke

    Erfurt

    Flanked by photogenic half-timbered houses on both sides, this charming 1325 stone bridge is the only one north of the Alps that's still inhabited. To…

  • Treetops of beech and oak trees in a forest near Göttingen.

    Göttinger Wald

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Göttinger Wald is one of the best mixed forest stands of predominantly beech and oak in the region. It’s easily reached by following Herzberger…

  • Hundertwasserschule

    Central Germany

    How would you like to study grammar and algebra in a building where trees sprout from the windows and gilded onion domes balance above a rooftop garden?…

  • Stadtkirche Wittenberg

    Central Germany

    The Stadt- und Pfarrkirche St Marien (Stadtkirche Wittenberg) was where Martin Luther’s ecumenical revolution began, with the world’s first Protestant…

  • Löwenburg

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Situated within Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, the faux-ruined 'Lion's Castle' was built between 1793 and 1801 in a 'medieval' style so ornately romantic it's…

  • Törten Estate

    Central Germany

    The leafy Törten Estate, built in Dessau’s south in the 1920s, is a prototype of the modern working-class estate. Although many of the 300-plus homes have…

  • Grosser Burgberg

    Harz Mountains

    It takes just over half an hour to walk from town, or a zippy three-minute ride on the Burgberg-Seilbahn, to reach the top of this humble peak (483m),…

  • Münchhausen Museum

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Bodenwerder’s principal attraction struggles a little with the difficult task of conveying the chaos and fun associated with the ‘liar baron’ – a man who…

  • Schloss Wilhelmsthal

    Fairy-Tale Road

    About 15km northwest of Kassel you'll find one of Germany's best-preserved and most beautiful rococo palaces, built by Landgrave Wilhelm VIII as a leisure…

  • Stiftskirche St Cyriakus

    Harz Mountains

    One of the purest examples of Romanesque architecture from the Ottonian period is this church in Gernrode, 8km south of Quedlinburg. Construction of the…

  • Schlossmuseum

    Harz Mountains

    The Schlossberg, on a 25m-high plateau above Quedlinburg, was initially graced with a church and residence under King Heinrich I (Henry the Fowler),…

  • Landgrafenschloss

    Fairy-Tale Road

    Perched at the highest point in Marburg is the massive Landgrave Castle, built between 1248 and 1300 by the first Hessian Landgrave, Heinrich I, on the…

  • Haus Muche/Schlemmer

    Central Germany

    Haus Muche/Schlemmer makes it apparent that the room proportions used by Bauhaus architects, and some of their design experiments, such as low balcony…

  • Alte Synagoge

    Erfurt

    This is one of Europe's oldest Jewish houses of worship, dating in part to the 11th century. Following the 'Black Death' pogrom of 1349 it was used as an…

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