UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany
Falkenlust Palace
Just a short, enchanting stroll away from Augustusburg Palace in Brühl, Falkenlust is located on the edge of a secluded grove as the favourite hunting lodge of the Cologne elector and Archbishop Clemens August (1700-1761). One of the most intimate and precious creations of German Rococo was built in a few short years (1729-1737) according to the plans of François de Cuvilliés, court architect of the Ba ...
Founded: 1729-1737 |
Location:
Brühl, Germany
Klopp Castle
Klopp Castle is the landmark of Bingen. It stands on a hill above the town with a wide-ranging view, which may have been the site of a Roman fortification built by Drusus at Bingium around 10 CE. The hill is one of three locations where local legend says that Emperor Henry IV was imprisoned by his son in 1105 or 1106, this being the first surviving mention of a castle there. The last medieval castle on the site was built ...
Founded: 13th century |
Location:
Bingen am Rhein, Germany
Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe
Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe is a unique landscape park in Kassel. The area of the park is 2.4 square kilometres, making it the largest European hillside park, and second largest park on a mountain slope in the world. Descending a long hill dominated by a giant statue of Hercules, the monumental water displays of Wilhelmshöhe were begun by Landgrave Carl of Hesse-Kassel in 1689 around an east-west axis and were developed furth ...
Founded: 1689 |
Location:
Bad Wilhelmshöhe, Germany
Schloss Belvedere
Belvedere Castle stands on a hill at the south of Weimar and is surrounded by 43 hectares of parkland. Duke Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach had a Baroque summer residence including an orangery, pleasure garden and labyrinth built here between 1724 and 1748. Since 1923, Belvedere Castle has been used as a museum of 18th century crafts. The castle, which originally served as a hunting lodge, is surrounded by stables w ...
Founded: 1724-1748 |
Location:
Weimar, Germany
Ducal Vault
Weimar’s Ducal Vault is not a typical burial place for a royal family. Since 1832, the members of the House of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach have shared their tomb with the two most famous poets of Weimar classicism, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. As a result, the mausoleum has been a popular site of veneration for the poets ever since the mid-19th century. The construction of the Ducal Vault was commissione ...
Founded: 1823-1828 |
Location:
Weimar, Germany
Eibingen Abbey
Eibingen Abbey (in German Abtei St. Hildegard) is Benedictine nunnery, originally founded in 1165 by Hildegard von Bingen. It was dissolved at the beginning of the 19th century during the secularization of this part of Germany. The present community was established by Charles, 6th Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg in 1904 and re-settled from St. Gabriel's Abbey, Bertholdstein. The nunnery belongs to the Beuronese C ...
Founded: 1900-1904 |
Location:
Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany
Park an der Ilm
The 48-hectare landscaped park on the edge of Weimar’s old town is part of a kilometre-long stretch of green along the Ilm. It was laid between 1778 and 1828 and features both sentimental, classical and post-classical/romantic styles. The creation of the park on the Ilm river is closely linked with Goethe’s life and work in Weimar. In 1776, Duke Carl August gave the poet a small house with a garden, today kno ...
Founded: 1778-1828 |
Location:
Weimar, Germany
Katz Castle
Count Wilhelm II of Katzenelnbogen built the Katz Castle in the second half of the 14th century. Katz Castle was used as bastion and military base to protect the Rheinfels Castle. Together they formed a fortified bulwark with a barrier for levying of the Rhine toll. The extended view up to the bend of the river at the Loreley was also of great importance to secure salmon fishing. Due to the intentionally chosen location o ...
Founded: c. 1371 |
Location:
Sankt Goarshausen, Germany
Sooneck Castle
Sooneck Castle was first mentioned around 1271. Like neighbouring Burg Reichenstein (Rhein), the castle was managed by the lords of Hohenfels as bailiffs for Kornelimünster Abbey near Aachen. What is certain is that the castle was besieged in 1282 by King Rudolph I. His troops overran and destroyed the castle and the king imposed a ban on rebuilding it, which he explicitly restated in 1290. When the castle was rebuilt it ...
Founded: 13th century |
Location:
Niederheimbach, Germany
Gutenfels Castle
Gutenfels Castle was built in 1220. It was used with Pfalzgrafenstein Castle in the middle of the Rhein and the fortified town of Kaub on the far side to provide an impenetrable toll zone for the Holy Roman Emperor until Prussia purchased the area (1866) and ended this toll in 1867. This castle, primarily owned (since 1257) by the Falkenstein family, is one of the most important examples of the Hohenstaufen military and ...
Founded: 1220 |
Location:
Kaub, Germany
Sterrenberg Castle
By 1034, Sterrenberg was being mentioned as an imperial castle, but the source is not certain. In 1190, Sterrenberg Castle is listed in the book of Werner von Bolanden as a fief, together with the custom point in Bornhofen. The noble family of Bolanden stayed as lords of Sterrenberg Castle until the second half of the 13th century. From this early period, the bergfried and the first, inner shield wall have survived.
Founded: 11th century |
Location:
Kamp-Bornhofen, Germany
Martin Luther's Death House
Martin Luther"s Death House (Martin Luthers Sterbehaus) is the historic building in Eisleben, where it was incorrectly thought that Martin Luther died on 18 February 1546. Since then it has become a museum and a UNESCO world heritage site. The city of Eisleben, located in Saxony-Anhalt, is also where Martin Luther was born and baptised; his birth house is also a UNESCO world heritage site and museum. It is no ...
Founded: 1546 |
Location:
Eisleben, Germany
Mouse Tower
The Mouse Tower (Mäuseturm) is a stone tower on a small island in the Rhine. The Romans were the first to build a structure on this site. It later became part of Franconia, and it fell and had to be rebuilt many times. Hatto II, the Archbishop of Mainz, restored the tower in 968. The story of how it came to be called the 'Mouse Tower' comes from a folk tale (Hatto was being eaten alive by mice in a tower). ...
Founded: 968 AD / 1855 |
Location:
Bingen am Rhein, Germany
Jagdschloss Glienicke
Jagdschloss Glienicke is a small German hunting lodge in Berlin-Wannsee. It was built in 1682 by Charles Philippe Dieussart for Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg and completed in 1693 during the reign of Frederick William I of Prussia. Frederick I of Prussia used it as a military hospital. In 1763, Frederick II of Prussia gave it as a present to Isaac Levin Joel, a wallpaper and carpet maker who used it for wallpa ...
Founded: 1682 |
Location:
Wannsee, Germany
Barbara Baths
The Barbara Baths (Barbarathermen) are a large Roman bath complex designated as part of the Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St. Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Barbara Baths were built in the second century AD. The extensive ruins were used as a castle in the Middle Ages, then torn down and recycled as building material until the remains were used for constructing a Jesuit College in 16 ...
Founded: 100-200 AD |
Location:
Trier, Germany
Fagus Factory
Fagus Factory in Alfeld is a 10-building complex - began around 1910 to the design of Walter Gropius, which is a landmark in the development of modern architecture and industrial design. It was constructed between 1911 and 1913, with additions and interiors completed in 1925. Serving all stages of manufacture, storage and dispatch of lasts used by the shoe industry, the complex, which is still operational today, is situat ...
Founded: 1910 |
Location:
Alfeld (Leine), Germany
Haus am Horn
The Haus am Horn was built for the Weimar Bauhaus's exhibition of July through September 1923. It was designed by Georg Muche, a painter and a teacher at the Bauhaus. Other Bauhaus instructors, such as Adolf Meyer and Walter Gropius, assisted with the technical aspects of the house's design. The house's construction was financed by Sommerfeld, a Berlin lumber merchant, who had been a client of Gropius years before. The ho ...
Founded: 1923 |
Location:
Weimar, Germany
Lindstedt Palace
Lindstedt Palace is part of the ensemble of courtyards and gardens of Potsdam. It was built in the second half of the 19th century by Friedrich Wilhelm IV in late classicism style. The authors were four architect, including the famous Friedrich Ludwig Persius and Friedrich August Stüler. The palace is listed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin.
Founded: 1858-1861 |
Location:
Potsdam, Germany
Ehrenfels Castle Ruins
Ehrenfels Castle was (re-)built about 1212 at the behest of the Archbishop of Mainz as a defensive work against the constant attacks by Elector Palatine Henry V, who, as Imperial vicar of Franconia, strived to cut down the archbishop"s reach. Mainz staffed the castle with Burgmannen and erected a customs post controlling the shipping on the Rhine, supplemented by the Mouse Tower below at the river. Heavily damaged in ...
Founded: 1212 |
Location:
Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany
Liebenstein Castle
Liebenstein Castle was probably built in the 13th century as well as near Sterrenberg castle. Both were owned by feodal lords of Bolanden (later Sponheim-Dannenfels). The gate tower was added 1363 and tower in 1380 and the castle was enlarged in the 15th century. However, already in 1529 it was abandoned and left to decay. The major restoration took place in 1977 and today Liebenstein is a hotel and restaurant.
Founded: 13th century |
Location:
Kamp-Bornhofen, Germany