Nuremberg

169km (105 miles) NW of Munich, 225km (140 miles) SE of Frankfurt, 204km (127 miles) NE of Stuttgart

When this city celebrated its 900th birthday in 1950, the scars of World War II were still fresh. Nürnberg was once a masterpiece of medieval splendor, but that legacy was lost in the ashes of war. With the exception of Dresden, no other German city suffered such devastation in a single air raid. On the night of January 2, 1945, 525 British Lancaster bombers rained fire and destruction on this city, the ideological center of the Third Reich.

Nürnberg today has regained its vitality and is now a symbol of postwar prosperity. The city swarms with people, both longtime residents and the Gastarbeiter (foreign workers), who have flooded the city in recent years -- many from the old Soviet Bloc countries to the east. For most of the year, the city is thronged with visitors, too. It's a notable industrial center, still associated with its traditional gingerbread products and handmade toys. The first pocket watches, the Nürnberg eggs, were made here in the 16th century.

Centuries of art and architecture made Nürnberg a treasure. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Nürnberg enjoyed a cultural flowering that made it the center of the German Renaissance, bringing together Italian Renaissance and German Gothic traditions. In the artists' workshops were found such great talents as Veit Stoss, Peter Vischer, Adam Krafft, Michael Wolgemut and, above all, Albrecht Dürer. Koberger set up his printing press here, and Regiomontanus built an astronomical observatory. Here, too, flourished the guilds of the Meistersingers, composed of prosperous artisans; Wagner made their most famous member, Hans Sachs, the hero of his opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Many of Nürnberg's most important buildings, including some of the finest churches in Germany, have been restored or reconstructed. The old part of the city, the Altstadt, lies mainly within a pedestrian zone. Today's visitors can see the ruins of the ramparts that once surrounded the city as well as more modern sites, such as the Justice Palace, where the War Crimes Tribunal sat in 1946.

Visitors can also see the Zeppelinfeld arena, the huge amphitheater where, from 1927 to 1935, Hitler staged those dramatic Nazi rallies that were immortalized by Leni Riefenstahl in Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will). Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, constructed what has been called a "concrete mecca," whose grounds today have been turned into a park with apartment blocks, a trade fair, and a concert hall. Speer's Congress Hall, larger than the Colosseum in Rome, has become a recording studio and warehouse.