Leipzig

Leipzig is the largest city of Saxônia, in eastern Germany, and grew as a trade-fair and publishing center. The old town fits within a ring of avenues and is best explored on foot: the market square (Markt) with its Renaissance town hall, covered passages like the Mädlerpassage and the city’s two large churches.

Music is everywhere. Johann Sebastian Bach was cantor at the Thomaskirche for 27 years and is buried there; opposite it is the Bach-Museum. Felix Mendelssohn conducted the Gewandhaus orchestra and spent his last years in the house that is now the Mendelssohn-Haus. The Gewandhaus, on the Augustusplatz, remains one of the country’s most active concert halls.

Leipzig is also a place of memory for divided Germany. The peace prayers at the Nikolaikirche grew into the Monday demonstrations of 1989, which helped to topple the regime of the former East Germany. The Zeitgeschichtliches Forum and the Museum in der Runden Ecke, the former political police building, tell that story.

Outside the ring are the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, a 91-metre monument to the battle against Napoleon in 1813, Zoo Leipzig and the industrial neighborhoods to the west. In Plagwitz, old factories have become studios, bars and galleries, and the Spinnerei, a cotton mill, brings together artists of the so‑called New Leipzig School.

This destination brings together 1 city: Leipzig.