Across Augsburg's Old City, the bells toll six o'clock. As the last bell sounds in the Perlach Tower, the lights on the 16th-century City Hall go dark. After a few seconds, 24 windows brighten in the beams of spotlights, and 24 angels throw open the sashes and stand with wings poised as their robes swirl in the wind. 

Organ music swells, and in two center windows of the town hall balcony, one angel lifts a horn, then another a flute, a third a lute, the last a harp as they "play" to the music filling the town square. Soon the sound of the instruments is joined by the voices of a children's chorus, as the angles, bathed in soft rose and yellow lights and their heads decked with white wigs, sing along. And as the music ends, the angels step back and, in perfect unison, grasp and pull shut the windows. The spotlights fade, the angels disappear, the outer lights go bright, and it's almost as if the several thousands residents and visitors release their breaths simultaneously. 

Augsburg states that its Christmas Market may be "the most beautiful anywhere." While some cities may debate that claim, none can dispute the power, charm and majesty of the Engelesspiel (Angel Play), an Advent tradition. Twelve times during Advent, 24 townschildren gather in the Rathaus - City Hall -and take their positions as 6 p.m. approaches. Until that moment, the Renaissance façade of the Rathaus is awash in soft light. 

The adjacent Perlach Tower bears a simple star of lights. In the center of the town square, protecting a crèche scene, a mighty fir stands decked with white lights and bronze snowflakes.

When the lights go dark, thousands of Augsburgers and visitors watch in hushed silence from throughout the square. In some ways, it's like life imitating art. In the Rathaus windows, the children are like living statues portraying the Advent calendar. Through binoculars, the angels' faces seem beatific -perhaps almost saintly - although their parents or teachers might take exception.

Behind the angels, the spotlights shimmer off the gold leaf in the ornate Golden Hall and cast deep shadows into its coffered wooden ceilings. Elias Holl built the Rathaus between 1615 and 1620, a landmark of the city and perhaps the most significant secular Renaissance building north of the Alps. 

There's certainly much more to Augsburg's Christkindlesmarkt (literally "Christ Child's Market") than the Engelesspiel. More than 100 booths fill the town square and nearby pedestrian streets - so full that the booths nearly obscure the mosaic-like decoration of the square accomplished through cobble stones instead of tiles. 

While many booths offer manufactured goods, even more feature crafts made by hand in Bavaria and around Germany such as pottery, jewelry and wood carvings. Visitors can also buy ceramic villages - collections of buildings like a town hall, village school, baroque church, tower and patrician homes - handmade by Franconian craftspeople. In a village outside Rothenburg, the tiny buildings are sculpted and pieced together by hand in extreme detail, fired, then painted. A glassblower sells his work as well, like delicate Christmas ornaments and globes painted with winter scenes.

As at all Christmas markets, an extensive variety of foods tempts visitors as they walk through "streets" with names like Star Way, Angel Street and Gingerbread Lane. There's no lack of usual fare like nuts, candy, crepes, chocolates, potato pancakes with applesauce, hot Glühwein and various sausages. Chestnuts are represented in many forms: roasted, chocolate covered, chestnut liqueur and chestnut honey. 

One stand forms the base of a "Christmas pyramid," a four-level giant toy with revolving platforms that contain carved figures of angels and trumpeters. Bavarian specialties round out the menu like Schupfnudeln, pinkie-shaped flour dumplings mixed with sauerkraut and bacon; Reibedutschi, grated potato pancakes served with applesauce; and Fleischküchle, a thick patty of chopped meat, bread, herbs and spices that may have served as a model for the hamburger.