Thuringia Attractions

Located high up on a precipice overlooking the town of Eisenach, the Wartburg is a UNESCO World Heritage-listed castle that dates to the Middle Ages. It was the former home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary and where Martin Luther translated the New Testament of the Bible into German, as well as serving as inspiration for Ludwig II when he built his fairytale castle of Neuschwanstein.

The foundation of the castle was laid in the mid-11th century by Louis the Springer and was designed to guard the extreme borders of his territories. It is believed to have been the setting for the legendary Sängerkrieg that was later used as inspiration for Richard Wagner’s opera “Tannhäuser."

The largest building of the Wartburg is the 12th-century Palas, which is consid-ered one of the best-preserved Romanesque structures north of the Alps...

One of the most important landmarks in the city of Erfurt, the Krämerbrücke (Merchants' bridge) is a medieval footbridge that connects the Benediktsplatz and Wenigemarkt and is lined with half-timbered buildings on both sides. The 79-meter-long bridge spans the Breitstrom (a branch of the Gera River), with its current limestone and sandstone construction replacing a number of earlier wooden bridges that were destroyed by fires.

Originally mentioned in the 12th-century, the bridge seen today was reconstruct-ed following a fire in 1472. It features 62 half-timbered buildings that rise to three-stories in height and partially overhang the stone bridge structure, with a 5.5-meter-wide road stretching in between. Although there was once a church at either end of the bridge, only the Aegidien Church survives to this day...

The only national park in Thuringia, the Hainich National Park protects a magnificent tract of native beech forest and forms part of the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and the Ancient Beech Forests of Germany World Heritage Site. It’s one of the last remaining, undissected beech forests to retain distinct Central European characteristics and supports a number of rare and vulnerable species.

The Hainich National Park is surrounded by the towns of Eisenach, Bad Langensalza and Mühlhausen but has remained largely intact due to the area’s use as a restricted military zone for many years. It encompasses ash trees, maples, lindens and hornbeams, as well as summer snowflake flowers and an outstanding diversity of fungi. In addition to its plant life, the national park is home to wildcats, various species of woodpeckers and over 500 different types of wood beetles...

Serving as the former residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Weimar and Eisenach, the Stadtschloss Weimar is a lavish palace on the edge of Ilm Park. Originally established as a medieval moated castle in the 10th century, it was reconstructed multiple times following fires before being rebuilt as a Baroque palace in the 17th century. Its Schlosskirche saw the premiere of numerous works by Johann Sebastian Bach during the early 18th century but the palace was completely destroyed by fire in 1774, with the current Neoclassical structure built in the following years.

Join a guided tour to explore the historic chambers of the Stadtschloss Weimar, with many of the rooms decorated with original furnishings and art pieces dating from the Middle Ages...

Set within a 550-year-old half-timbered house, the Bach House in Eisenach explores the life and work of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The building was mistakenly identified as Bach’s birth house in the 19th century and was opened as the world’s first museum dedicated to Bach in 1907. It has grown into the world’s largest exhibition on the locally-born composer, with more than 250 original exhibits and a meticulously reconstructed “Bach Library.”

Step inside the charming Bach House to discover the history of the residence and admire the unique instruments on display, which include an 18th-century glass harmonica and a violin with a built-in trumpet from 1717. Learn about Bach’s studies in Ohrdruf and Lüneburg, as well as the positions he held in Weimar and Leipzig, and admire the original librettos, spectacles and the famous Bach Goblet that are highlights of the exhibit...

One of the oldest surviving half-timbered houses in Thuringia, the Lutherhaus in Eisenach was the home of Martin Luther between 1498 and 1501 when he lived here as a schoolboy with the Cotta family. It has been a significant Reformation historical site since the 19th century and in 2011 was designated as a European Cultural Heritage Site before being redeveloped and extended for the anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.

Step inside to explore the “Luther and the Bible” multimedia exhibition, which offers a fascinating insight into how Luther translated the Bible and the impact his work had on not only literature and language but also music. Follow in Martin Luther’s footsteps as you wander through the famous “Luther rooms” that date to 1356, then admire the treasures of medieval art on display that include works by Cranach, masterpieces from the Römhilder Textilschatz and a record of Johann Sebastian Bach’s baptism...

Located in the Kyffhäuser Hills near the village of Rottleben, the Barbarossa Cave is a spectacular cave that features large caverns, grottos and lakes. Moisture in the cave has lead to the anhydrite forming gypsum on the cave’s surface, which has gradually separate from the underlying rock and now hangs like wallpaper from the cave’s walls and ceilings.

The Barbarossa Cave was first discovered in 1856 during prospecting work for a copper mine and by 1866 it was being developed as a show cave known as the Falkenburger Höhle. Its location in the Kyffhäuser Hills is what gave rise to its links with the Barbarossa legend, with Frederick Barbarossa said to have slept in an underground palace until Germany was unified...

Home to the largest emblematic circular painting in Germany, the Panorama Museum overlooks the spa town of Bad Frankenhausen. It’s here that the 123-meter-long monumental “Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany” painting by Werner Tübke is displayed and it stands as one of the most impressive and controversial paintings in recent art history. Created between 1983 and 1987, the oil on canvas painting depicts more than 3,000 figures during the Battle of Franken-hausen, which was fought on 15 May 1525 during the German Peasants' War.

The Panorama Museum was built in the 1980s specifically to house the painting, which exhibits an Old Master’s style in depicting the battle that took place at the site around 500 years ago...

One of Germany’s largest gardens and leisure parks, the egapark sprawls across the 265-meter-high Cryiaksberg in the southwest of Erfurt. Originally established as a city fortress, the area was transformed into a public green space in the late-19th century before it became the venue for the International Horticultural Exhibition from 1961.

Today the egapark includes exhibition halls and greenhouses, themed gardens and an observatory, as well as the largest children’s playground in Thuringia. It’s also home to the only museum dedicated solely to horticulture in Germany, the Deutsches Gartenbaumuseum. The park was designed by landscape architect Reinhold Lingner and is considered one of the most important works of garden architecture from the 1960s...