Germany's sunniest city — cathedral gargoyles, Black Forest hikes, and Badisches Weingut wines
Freiburg im Breisgau is Germany's sunniest city and the unofficial capital of the Black Forest — a vibrant university town of medieval arcaded streets where open-air Bächle (narrow channels of running water dating from the 12th century) run down every main street. The towering red-sandstone Münster cathedral has been under some form of construction or restoration for over 800 years, and the city's Badische wine region produces some of Germany's finest Pinot Noirs.
Freiburg was founded in 1120 by Duke Konrad of Zähringen as a free market town — 'Frei Burg' means 'free city' — and its university (founded 1457) made it a centre of humanism and later Jesuit scholarship. The city passed to the Habsburg Empire in 1368, then spent centuries under Austrian rule, which explains its distinctly non-Prussian character. Nearly 80% of the medieval city was destroyed in a single RAF bombing raid in November 1944, but it was meticulously rebuilt to its original plans — the Münster alone survived intact, making it a symbol of resilience.