Quedlinburg
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Collegiate Church, Castle And Old Town Of Quedlinburg (1994); Well Over A Thousand Timber Framed Houses Across Six Centuries, And The Ottonian Church And Treasury On The Schlossberg · Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt
Quedlinburg sits in the northern Harz foreland with well over a thousand timber-framed houses spanning roughly six centuries of building, and that density is the whole reason to come: a near-complete medieval and early modern townscape rather than one preserved showpiece street. It survived because the GDR had no money to redevelop it, and by 1989 that same neglect had nearly finished it off - roofs open, frames rotting, whole lanes condemned. UNESCO inscribed it in 1994 and restoration has run ever since. On the Schlossberg above the roofs stands the Stiftskirche St Servatius, a Romanesque collegiate church over the grave of Henry I, first Saxon king of the Germans, with a treasury whose finest pieces were taken by an American officer in 1945 and only came back in the 1990s. The Lyonel Feininger gallery holds the modernist's prints. The town is small, hilly, cobbled and in low season genuinely sleepy. If you have already seen Bamberg and Regensburg, Quedlinburg adds timber-framing and not much else - but it adds a great deal of it.
Quedlinburg old town below the castle hill and the collegiate church of St Servatius, northern Harz foreland, Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
The old town is open streets, free at any hour, and the lanes are at their best early and late when they are empty. The Stiftskirche and the treasury on the Schlossberg open daily except Monday in the main season with shorter winter hours, and close to visitors during services - confirm, and expect last admission about half an hour before closing. The castle museum beside it keeps the same pattern. The Lyonel Feininger gallery and the timber-framing museum also close on Monday. Shops and cafes in the old town keep short provincial hours, many shut on Sunday and some close entirely for part of the winter, which is what catches out an off-season visitor. Narrow-gauge steam trains into the Harz run to a seasonal timetable - confirm.