Medieval UNESCO town, smoked Rauchbier, and 9 breweries in a city of 70,000
Bamberg is Germany's most intact medieval town — its UNESCO-listed old city of 2,400 timber-framed houses was never bombed in World War II and looks almost exactly as it did in the 17th century. It is also the beer capital of Franconia: with 9 breweries and the world's only surviving tradition of Rauchbier (smoked beer, produced using malted barley dried over beechwood fires at Schlenkerla since 1405), no other small German city takes beer more seriously.
Bamberg was the centre of the Holy Roman Empire under Emperor Henry II, who made it his seat of power, founded the cathedral, and was canonised here in 1146. The city's extraordinary preservation stems partly from its status as a Prince-Bishopric — governed by the church for centuries, it avoided the industrial development and military targeting that destroyed much of Germany. The Bamberg Witch Trials (1626–1631) executed over 300 people during the most intense witch-hunt panic in German history, a dark chapter now documented in the Bamberg museum.