Top 10 Attractions in Thuringia

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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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