11 Best Sights in The Romantic Road, Germany

Ulm's Minster, built by the citizens of their own initiative, is the largest evangelical church in Germany and one of the most elaborately decorated. Its church tower, just 13 feet higher than that of the Cologne Cathedral, is the world's highest, at 536 feet. It stands over the huddled medieval gables of Old Ulm with a single, filigree tower that challenges the physically fit to plod up the 768 steps of a spiral stone staircase to a spectacular observation point below the spire. On clear days, the steeple will reward you with views of the Swiss and Bavarian Alps, 100 miles to the south. Construction on the cathedral began in the late-Gothic age (1377) and took five centuries; it gave rise to the legend of the sparrow, which was said to have helped the townspeople in their building by inspiring them to pile the wood used in construction lengthwise instead of width-wise on wagons in order to pass through the city gates. Completed in the neo-Gothic years of the late 19th century, the church contains some notable treasures, including late-Gothic choir stalls and a Renaissance altar as well as images of the inspirational sparrow. Ulm itself was heavily bombed during World War II, but the church was spared. Its mighty organ can be heard in special recitals every Sunday at noon from Easter until November.

Rothenburg's city walls are more than 4 km (2½ miles) long and dotted with 42 red-roofed watchtowers. Due to its age, only about half of the wall can be accessed on foot, but it provides an excellent way of circumnavigating the town from above. Let your imagination take you back 600 years as you explore the low, covered sentries' walkways, which are punctuated by cannons, turrets, and areas where the town guards met. Stairs every 200 or 300 yards provide ready access or departure. Called the Tower Trail, there are superb views of the tangle of pointed and tiled red roofs and of the rolling country beyond through viewpoints, many of which are narrow slits, since this was a protection against invaders.

A stone bridge—Germany's first—built in 1120 once stood on this site, over the Main River, but that ancient structure was replaced beginning in 1476. Twin rows of graceful statues of saints now line the bridge, placed here in 1730, at the height of Würzburg's baroque period. They were largely destroyed in 1945, but have been lovingly restored since then. Note the Patronna Franconiae (commonly known as the Weeping Madonna). There's a beautiful view of the Marienberg Fortress from the bridge.

Augsburg's imposing cathedral contains the oldest cycle of stained glass in central Europe and important paintings by local resident Hans Holbein the Elder, which adorn the altar. The celebrated stained-glass windows from the 11th century are on the south side of the nave and depict the prophets Jonah, Daniel, Hosea, Moses, and David. Originally built in the 9th century, the cathedral stands out because of its square Gothic towers, products of a 14th-century update. A 10th-century Romanesque crypt also remains from the cathedral's early years. Those celebrated stained-glass windows, from the 11th century, are on the south side of the nave and depict prophets Jonah, Daniel, Hosea, Moses, and David.

A short walk from the cathedral takes you to the quiet courtyards and small raised garden of the former episcopal residence, a series of 18th-century baroque and rococo buildings that now serve as the Swabian regional government offices. To the back of the cathedral at Kornhausg. 3–5 is the Diocese Museum of St. Afra, where the cathedral's treasures are on display.

The world's oldest social housing project, this settlement was established by the wealthy Fugger family in 1516 to accommodate employees of the family's textile mills and Augsburg's deserving poor. The 67 homes with 140 apartments still serve the same purpose and house about 150 people today. It's financed almost exclusively from the assets of the Fugger family foundation, because the annual rent of "one Rhenish guilder" (€1) hasn't changed, either. Residents must be Augsburg citizens, Catholic, and destitute through no fault of their own—and must pray three times daily for their original benefactors, the Fugger family. The most famous resident was Mozart's great-grandfather. You can view model apartments at Ochsengasse 51 for a fee, or view the settlement from the exterior from the outside free of charge. The Fuggerei was mostly destroyed during World War II, but it was rebuilt according to original plans, although with such modern conveniences as heating and electricity. Many residents survived Allied bombings by escaping to the little underground shelter the Fugger family had the foresight to build; today, it is a small wartime museum worth making part of your visit.

The 16th-century house and business quarters of the Fugger family now has a restaurant in its cellar and offices on the upper floors. Only the three courtyards here are open to the public, but you can peek into the ground-floor entrance to see busts of two of Augsburg's most industrious Fuggers, Raymund and Anton. Beyond a modern glass door is the Damenhof (Ladies' Courtyard), originally reserved for the Fugger women.

The tale of the Meistertrunk (Master Draught) and a prodigious civil servant dates to 1631, when the Protestant town was captured by Catholic forces during the Thirty Years' War. At the victory celebrations, the conquering general was embarrassed to find himself unable to drink a great tankard of wine in one go, as his manhood demanded. He volunteered to spare the town further destruction if any of the city councilors could drain the mighty six-pint draft. The mayor took up the challenge and succeeded, and Rothenburg was preserved. The tankard itself is on display at the Reichsstadtmuseum. On the north side of the clock tower in the main square is a fine clock, placed there 50 years after the mayor's feat. A mechanical figure acts out the epic Master Drink daily on the hour from 10 to 10. The feat is reenacted in the historical play "The Master Draught," and celebrated at the annual Meistertrunk festival.

Dinkelsbühl's main church is the standout sight in town. At 235 feet long it's large enough to be a cathedral, and is among the best examples in Bavaria of the late-Gothic style. Note the complex fan vaulting that spreads sinuously across the ceiling. If you can face the climb, head up the 200-foot tower for amazing views over the jumble of rooftops any weekend that the weather allows. The tower was built in the 12th century as a free-standing structure, 200 years before the adjoining church was built. 

Nördlingen lies in the center of a huge, basinlike depression, the Ries, that until the beginning of this century was believed to be the remains of an extinct volcano. In 1960 it was proven by two Americans that the 24-km-wide (15-mile-wide) crater was caused by an asteroid at least 1 km (½ mile) in diameter. The compressed rock, or Suevit, formed by the explosive impact of the meteorite was used to construct many of the town's buildings, including St. Georg's tower. If you want, you can bike around the crater.

This church, also known simply as Wieskirche (church in the meadow), is a glorious example of German rococo architecture, in an Alpine meadow just off the Romantic Road. Its yellow-and-white walls and steep red roof are set off by the dark backdrop of the Trauchgauer Mountains. The architect Dominicus Zimmermann, former mayor of Landsberg and creator of much of that town's architecture, built the church in 1745 on the spot where six years earlier a local woman claimed to see tears running down the face of a picture of Christ. Visit it on a bright day if you can, when light streaming through its high windows displays the full glory of the glittering gold and white interior. A complex oval plan is animated by brilliantly colored stuccowork, statues, and gilt. A luminous ceiling fresco completes the decoration. Concerts are presented in the church from the end of June through the beginning of August.

Standing at the highest point of the city, this Catholic basilica with an attached Protestant chapel symbolizes the Peace of Augsburg, the treaty that ended the religious struggle between the two groups. On the site of a Roman cemetery where St. Afra was martyred in AD 304, the original structure was built in the late-Gothic style in 1467. St. Afra is buried in the crypt, near the tomb of St. Ulrich, a 10th-century bishop who helped stop a Hungarian army at the gates of Augsburg in the Battle of the Lech River. The remains of a third patron of the church, St. Simpert, are preserved in an elaborate side chapel. From the steps of the magnificent altar, look back along the high nave to the finely carved, wrought-iron-and-wood baroque railing that borders the entrance. As you leave, look into the separate but adjacent church of St. Ulrich, the baroque preaching hall that was added for the Protestant community in 1710, after the Reformation.