Kulmbach

Kulmbach is Franconia's capital of beer with a castle full of tin soldiers. The Plassenburg, the Hohenzollern fortress crowning the town, is one of Germany's most imposing Renaissance strongholds — its Schöner Hof, an arcaded courtyard of carved medallions, ranks with the finest in the land — and inside, with perfect Franconian seriousness, resides the world's largest collection of tin figures: over 300,000 of them, arrayed in dioramas from Roman legions to Biedermeier parlours, the German Tin Figure Museum as an empire in miniature.

Beer is the town's other monument. Kulmbach brews some of Germany's most celebrated dark and strong beers, and legend credits the town with the Eisbock — the winter accident of a frozen barrel that concentrated the beer into something nobler, a mistake promoted to a style. The Bavarian Brewery Museum in the old Mönchshof explains the craft; the annual Kulmbacher Bierwoche in late July fills a vast festival hall for nine days of what the town does best — a beer week that draws pilgrims from far beyond Franconia. Bratwurst, of course, attends.

Between fortress and festival lies a comfortable old town of market squares and sandstone, with the Petrikirche climbing towards the castle hill. The Weismain and the White Main meet nearby on their way to the Rhine; Kulmbach stays where it is, well provisioned, well defended, and entirely sure of its priorities.