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.

Weimar

The city that attracted Goethe and Schiller has much to offer today's travellers. Long before the small city became Germany's interwar capital, it was a paradise of refinement and culture around the court of the dukes of Saxe-Weimar. The ducal family crypt includes the graves of Goethe and Schiller.

Highlights include the homes of Germany's literary giants - now museums - the small 18th century dowager palace of the duchess Anna Amalia known as the Wittumspalais, the duchess's exquisite Rococo library and the ducal residence, the Stadtschloß.

In the old town centre are Renaissance houses and the city is set off by parklands that include several pavilions and the Schloß und Park Belvedere above the city.

Weimar's Classical and Bauhaus movement monuments are world heritage-listed.