A country's cultural history manifests itself especially vividly in its architecture.
In the Historic Highlights of Germany, these stone witnesses to the past invite you to go on a fantastic trip through time to past eras.

The Historic Highlights of Germany offer you a chance to embark on a fascinating tour of discovery through Germany's past and present. Cathedrals and monasteries, patricians' houses and palaces: the Historical Highlights of Germany present a glorious pageant of history.

During the heyday of the Roman Empire, the Emperor Augustus founded Trier, which was later to become an imperial seat. After the Western Roman Empire fell and Christianity became established as the dominant religion, the power of the Church found expression in imposing cathedrals, churches and religious art. As trade and production grew during the Middle Ages, the cities' great wealth made itself felt in the architecture of beautiful patricians' and guild houses.

Stone witnesses also reveal much about Europe's varied and tumultuous political history. They tell a story of disintegration and destruction, of occupation and displacement by religious wars and wars of succession. And of how the industrial revolution shook the foundations of the feudal system and ushered in the modern age, which has long since also shaped our historic cities.

The Historic Highlights cross more than 2,000 years of architectural history, and nowhere else in Germany is the Roman Age documented as impressively as in Trier, with its Porta Nigra, amphitheater, Roman baths, and the throne room of the Roman emperors. That is why UNESCO has declared Germany's oldest city to be a cultural heritage site. The Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo periods also left their marks.

Regensburg transports visitors back to the age of Romanesque and Gothic styles with its completely intact Old Town. The city also contains the most important Gothic cathedral in Southern Germany, St. Peter's Cathedral.

The architectural highlights of Augsburg are among the most important Renaissance structures erected north of the Alps. At the heart of the city stands the monumental Rathaus, an imposing Renaissance masterpiece built as an expression of the Free Imperial City's civic pride.

In Würzburg, the Middle Ages awaken impressively with St. Kilian's Cathedral, Germany's fourth-largest Romanesque church. And even UNESCO has recognized the importance of the former Princebishops' Residence as a Baroque masterpiece.

UNESCO has also declared major portions of Potsdam a World Heritage Site including Baroque treasures like Sanssouci Palace and Gardens, the New Palace and the Marble Palace, as well as the neo-classical Charlottenhof Palace and the English Tudor-style Cecilienhof Palace.

When cities blossom economically, their architecture bears luxuriant fruits. Germany's best examples of this are the towns of the Hanseatic League, in which the style of northern German brick Gothic reached a magnificent zenith. Rostock is also characterized by the typical stylistic elements of that era.

Erfurt began blossoming a full millennium ago, and a walk down the Anger, one of its oldest streets, is a walk through almost every major architectural style of the past 1,000 years. Koblenz was given its name by the Romans with the construction of "Castellum apud Confluentes." Over the centuries, the city was captured by the Franconians, chosen by dukes as royal residence, occupied by the French and ruled by Prussia. Fortress walls and towers, castles, residences, monuments and parks paint a convincing picture of the town's eventful past.

Heidelberg's famous Castle, with construction lasting over 400 years, reveals styles from Gothic to High Renaissance. Among the many buildings below it, the Knight St. George is considered to be one of the most impressive monuments of the late Renaissance period.

In Münster, the Baroque Age is omnipresent in some of that city's most spectacular architectural works and reflect the joi de vivre of that age.

One of the earliest baroque palaces in Germany, the former residence of the Prince-Bishop was built in Osnabrück starting in 1668 by Ernst August I and his wife Sophie.

The religious buildings of the Historic Highlights of Germany are a monumental expression of the power of the Church. Freiburg's cathedral ranks among Europe's masterworks of Gothic architecture, and its 91 eye-catching sculptures arranged around the rim of the cathedral are a must for fans of gargoyles.

Mainz’s massive cathedral has determined the course of the city’s history and still gives Mainz its character to this day, a thousand years after its construction.

Since its foundation by Charlemagne, Osnabrück’s cathedral has for more than 1225 years been the religious center of the bishopric. The current look dates back mainly to the time of late Romanesque area in the 13th century.

Although the oldest principal building in Wiesbaden is the Old Town Hall, built in 1610, the city is a wealth of Classical, Late Classical and Neo-Classical architecture from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
 

Date Architecture

100 Amphitheater in Trier

2nd century Porta Nigra (Roman city gate) in Trier

2nd century Porta Praetoria in Regensburg

300 Imperial Baths in Trier

305 Basilica in Trier

364 -375 Heathens’ Wall, part of a Roman Stronghold in Wiesbaden

7th/8th century St. Emmeram's Church in Regensburg

8th/9th century Carolingian architecture

836 Basilica St. Castor in Koblenz

8th - 15th century Cathedral and Church of St. Severus in Erfurt

8th/18th century Marienberg Fortress in Würzburg

836 Basilika St. Kastor consecrated in Romanesque style in Koblenz

9th century Cathedral in Augsburg

9th - 16th century St. Paul's Cathedral in Münster

10th - 18th century St. Peter's Cathedral in Trier

1040 - 18th century Cathedral of St. Kilian in Würzburg

1135 - 46 Stone Bridge in Regensburg

1150 Prinzipalmarkt in Münster

1150 - 1200 Schottenkirche St. Jakob in Regensburg

12th – 14th century St. Florin’s Church in Koblenz

1200 Freiburg Cathedral (completed in 1513)

1201 Vault Basilica Moselweiss in Koblenz

1270 - 1315 Town Hall in Rostock

1277 Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt

13th century - 1525 Cathedral of St. Peter in Regensburg

1325 Krämerbrücke (Vendor's Bridge) in Erfurt

14th - 17th century Castle and Big Vat in Heidelberg

15th century Holy Ghost Church in Heidelberg

1516 Fuggerei in Augsburg

1525 - 32 Kaufhaus in Freiburg

1576 Julius Hospital in Würzburg

1592 House "Zum Ritter" in Heidelberg

1609 – 1610 Old Town Hall in Wiesbaden

1615 Electoral Palace in Trier

1615 - 1620 Town Hall (Renaissance style) in Augsburg

1664 - 1707 The Petersberg Citadel in Erfurt

1700 – 1750 Biebrich Palace (Baroque style) in Wiesbaden

1720 - 1744 Residenze in Würzburg

1734 - 1742 Dutch quarter in Potsdam

1745 - 1747 Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam

1750 Bohemian Village in Potsdam

1753 - 1757 Erbdrostenhof in Münster

1765 - 1770 Schaezler Palace (Rococo) in Augsburg

1777 - 1786 Elector's Palace (Neo-Classical style) in Koblenz

1787 Theatre and Obelisk (Neo-Classical style) in Koblenz

1810 Old Kurhaus with Casino in Wiesbaden

1812 Palace of the Princes of Thurn & Taxis in Regensburg

1817 – 1828 Ehrenbreitstein Fortress (Neo-Classical style) in Koblenz

1820 Prince Regent Palace in Wiesbaden

1827 Kurhaus Colonade in Wiesbaden

1840 City Palace (Late-Classical style) in Wiesbaden

1847 – 1855 Russian Church (Greek Chapel) in Wiesbaden

1852 -  1862 Market Church (Gothic Revival) in Wiesbaden

1865 St. Augustine of Canterbury (English Gothic Style) in Wiesbaden

1870 - 1874 Town Hall in Erfurt

1882 Villa Clementine (Roman-Pompeian style) in Wiesbaden

1884 – 1887 New City Hall (Neo-Renaissance style) in Wiesbaden

1892 – 1894 State Theatre in Wiesbaden (Neo-Baroque style)

1904 - 1907 Kurhaus in Wiesbaden in Neo-Classical Style

1913 Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme, hot spring in Wiesbaden

1920 - 1921 Einstein Tower in Potsdam