These are the best places to travel this summer

Bamberg

Germany Travel Guide

Shop

Get even more with a Lonely Planet guide.

Shop Book
Frescos decorate walls of Old Town Hall in Bamburg, Germany

Getty Images/Gallo Images

LONELY PLANET’S RECOMMENDED eSIM

Stay connected in Bamberg

with

Saily is an affordable eSIM service that helps you stay connected and secure, anywhere in the world.

Get your eSIM

Overview

A disarmingly beautiful architectural masterpiece with an almost complete absence of modern eyesores, Bamberg's entire Altstadt is a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of Bavaria's unmissables. Generally regarded as one of Germany's most attractive settlements, the town is bisected by rivers and canals and was built by archbishops on seven hills, earning it the inevitable sobriquet of ‘Franconian Rome’. Students inject some liveliness into its streets, pavement cafes, pubs and no fewer than 10 breweries cooking up Bamberg's famous smoked beer, but it's usually wide-eyed tourists who can be seen filing through its narrow medieval streets. The town can be tackled as a day trip from Nuremberg, but, to really do it justice and to experience the romantically lit streets once most visitors have left, consider an overnight stay.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

  • Bamberger Dom

    Bamberger Dom

    Bamberg

    Beneath the quartet of spires, Bamberg’s cathedral is packed with artistic treasures, most famously the slender equestrian statue of the Bamberger Reiter …

  • Klein Venedig

    Klein Venedig

    Bamberg

    A row of diminutive, half-timbered cottages once inhabited by fishermen and their families (hence the street's name meaning 'fishery') comprises Bamberg’s…

  • Kloster St Michael

    Kloster St Michael

    Bamberg

    Above Domplatz, at the top of Michaelsberg, is the Benedictine Kloster St Michael, a former monastery and now an aged people’s home. The monastery church…

  • Historisches Museum

    Historisches Museum

    Bamberg

    Bamberg's main museum fills the Alte Hofhaltung (old court hall), a former prince-bishops' palace near the cathedral, with a mixed bag of exhibits. These…

  • Altes Rathaus

    Altes Rathaus

    Bamberg

    Like a ship in dry dock, Bamberg's 1462 Old Town Hall was built on an artifical island in the Regnitz River, allegedly because the local bishop had…

  • Neue Residenz

    Neue Residenz

    Bamberg

    This splendid episcopal palace gives you an eyeful of the lavish lifestyle of Bamberg’s prince-bishops who, between 1703 and 1802, occupied its 40-odd…

  • Fränkisches Brauereimuseum

    Fränkisches Brauereimuseum

    Bamberg

    Located in the Kloster St Michael, this comprehensive brewery museum exhibits over 1000 period mashing, boiling and bottling implements, as well as…

Get a book. Get inspired. Get exploring.

in partnership with getyourguide

Book popular activities in Bamberg