Esslingen

Esslingen am Neckar is the old Swabian free city that war forgot: over a thousand years of building survive intact, from Germany's oldest continuous row of half-timbered houses on the market square to the medieval bridge striding the Neckar and the crenellated walls climbing through vineyards to the watchtowers above. The twin-spired Frauenkirche's filigree and the town church's crooked-bridge silhouette preside over lanes where imperial merchants once traded wine down the river to all of Europe.

Wine remains constitutional — the steep terraces within the town limits are among Württemberg's oldest — and in 1826 Esslingen bottled its future: the Kessler house, founded that year in the medieval Speyrer Zehnthof, is Germany's oldest sparkling-wine cellar, its "Sekt" maturing beneath Gothic vaults ever since; the cellar tours end, properly, with a glass. Industry followed elegance: Esslingen's machine works helped power Württemberg's rise, and the city today prospers in engineering's quiet Swabian way.

December brings the town's most theatrical hour: the Medieval and Christmas Market, when the entire old town returns to the fifteenth century — guildsmen, jugglers, fire-eaters and mulled everything among the timbered façades, one of Germany's most atmospheric markets. A summer of open-air concerts on the castle ramparts, the Württemberg state chamber orchestra's home seasons and jazz in ancient cellars keep Esslingen sounding as good as it looks.