Erfurt

Erfurt keeps a bridge you can live on: the Krämerbrücke, lined end to end with half-timbered houses over the Gera — the longest inhabited bridge north of the Alps, where artisans still sell chocolate, pottery and puppets from medieval premises, and residents water geraniums above the river. It is the emblem of a city that survived the centuries almost intact: Thuringia's capital grew rich on woad, the blue dye of the Middle Ages, and spent the profits on churches — the cathedral hill, where the Gothic cathedral and the Severikirche rise side by side over a monumental staircase, is among Germany's grandest sacred stagings, and each summer the DomStufen Festival turns those very steps into an open-air opera set.

Two histories give Erfurt special depth. Martin Luther lived here decisively — student at the ancient university, then monk in the Augustinian monastery, where his cell survives; "Erfurt is my spiritual homeland," he said. And beneath a townhouse, builders found the Erfurt Treasure — gold, silver and a unique Jewish wedding ring hidden during the 1349 pogrom; together with the Old Synagogue, among Europe's oldest, it earned Erfurt's medieval Jewish heritage a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

With the Bach family's Thuringian homeland all around and a lively theatre and concert season, Erfurt rewards the traveller generously.