The most beautiful cities in Germany

Germany’s most beautiful cities and towns stand among the best places to visit in the European Union. They span almost the full range of European variety. Raven Travel Guides Germany include:

• Cities with Roman origins and remains such as Trier, Cologne, Regensburg and Mainz.
• Medieval cities such as Nuremberg, Erfurt, Bamberg and Worms and the half-timbered Harz region towns of Goslar, Quedlinburg and Wernigerode.
• Renaissance showpiece cities such as Lübeck, Augsburg or Bremen.
• Cities with Baroque survivals, including Dresden, Heidelberg or Passau.
• Plenty of German cities have beautiful palaces on their streets or nearby, like Potsdam, Munich, Stuttgart, Würzburg and Weimar.
• The great cathedrals such as Cologne, Regensburg, Bamberg, Mainz, Erfurt, Worms, with countless other churches, sometimes in Romanesque but more commonly in the Gothic style. The münster of Ulm has the tallest spire of them all.
• Museums of culture and art among world’s best, including Deutsches Museum, Deutsches Nationalmuseum, Alte Pinakothek and the Pergamonmuseum.

All these places can be reached by train and bus (Quedlinburg is on a branch line). All offer a range of hotels, hostels, guest houses and other types of accommodation. All are very walkable and, like most German towns and cities, are really best seen on foot. But trams and buses help get people to and from hotels or attractions and for the bigger centres, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Nuremberg, there are fast regular options in the form of S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains and light-rail transport.

Lübeck

The birthplace of the Hanseatic League was the centre of northern Europe for centuries. Lübeck's trading network spread throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic, bringing new trading opportunities, laws and architecture. The north was made in Lübeck's image.

Despite bombing, the partly rebuilt UNESCO world-heritage old town is intact. Behind its signature monument the Holstentor are red-brick churches, town houses, a historic town hall and a historical  harbour of ships that recall the port's 19th century. Sett-paved streets remain and a network of alleys and residential courtyards have survived.

In a place of such significance, museums must tell part of the story. The extraordinary Museumsquartier-St-Annen brings together an ensemble of devotional art, 16th and 17th century portraiture, domestic interiors, porcelain and historical musical instruments. The Europäisches Hansemuseum tells the Hanseatic story. Another house gathers exhibits the life of Lübeck's Willy Brandt, anti-Nazi resistance operative and later German chancellor.