Bamberg

Bamberg was first mentioned in 902 and grew up beside the castle of Babenberch, which gave its name to the Babenberg family. In 1007 the emperor Henry II made it the seat of a new diocese, partly to give Christianity a firmer footing in the lands to the east, and his new cathedral was consecrated in 1012. He founded Michaelsberg Abbey in 1017, Pope Benedict VIII visited in 1020, and for a short time Bamberg was the centre of the Holy Roman Empire; Henry and his wife Kunigunde were both buried in the cathedral. From the middle of the 13th century the bishops ruled as princes of the Empire, building the monumental churches and palaces that still stand.

The town's darkest chapter came in the 17th century, when witch trials claimed about a thousand victims, reaching a climax between 1626 and 1631 under Prince-Bishop Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim. The university was founded in 1647 as the Academia Bambergensis. The secularisation of church lands ended the prince-bishopric in 1802, and Bamberg became part of Bavaria in 1803. The railway arrived in 1844. After the First World War the Bavarian government fled here from the revolution in Munich and stayed almost two years, and the state's first republican constitution was passed in the town.

Bamberg suffered less than nearby Nuremberg in the Second World War: Allied raids destroyed 4.4 per cent of the town and killed 378 civilians, most of them in the attack of 22 February 1945, and American troops took it on 14 April. The American army stayed at Warner Barracks until 2014. The old town was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 for its medieval layout and well-preserved buildings, and a visitor centre for the site opened in 2019.

The town spreads over seven hills, each crowned by a church, which has earned it the name "Franconian Rome" — local guides like to call Rome the "Italian Bamberg" in return. Its old town keeps the three-part plan of the Middle Ages: the church town on the hills, the burghers' town on the island and the market gardeners' district, all part of the World Heritage site, with around 2,400 timber houses.

Music has a large place for a town of this size. The Bamberg Symphony was founded in 1946 by musicians driven out of Bohemia, Moravia and the Sudetenland after the war, and has since played thousands of concerts around the world; at home it plays in the concert hall on the Regnitz. Basketball is followed with unusual passion: the town's club has won the German championship nine times, and German fans call Bamberg "Freak City". Instrument making — organs, violins and woodwinds — is a local craft, and the nativity scene tradition is strong enough to support a crib museum.

The Sandkerwa in August is the town's great festival, and the brewing calendar sets much of the rest of the year, from summer evenings in the hillside beer cellars to the seasonal smoked beers of Christmas and Lent. Residents carry the nickname Zwiebeltreter, onion-treaders, from the market gardeners who once trod down their shallots so the bulbs would grow below ground.

Bamberg had about 79,000 inhabitants in 2022, which makes it the largest town in Upper Franconia. The University of Bamberg, with more than 12,000 students, gives the old town a young population, and the town's economy is among the strongest in Bavaria. Bosch, which has made spark plugs and other parts here since 1939, is the largest employer, with over 6,000 staff, although about 1,000 jobs are due to move elsewhere from 2026; automotive suppliers, electrical engineering and food companies fill the industrial areas in the north and east around the river port.

Tourism matters as much: the town draws more than 800,000 overnight guests a year, and in 2018 its shopping streets were ranked first in Germany among towns of under 100,000 people. The market gardeners still grow lettuce, cabbage, asparagus, radishes, onions, liquorice and other crops in gardens inside the town. The former Warner Barracks, returned to Germany after the American army left in 2014, has largely been taken over by the Federal Police for training.

Life runs on foot and by bicycle: the old town is compact, parking is scarce, and buses are the only public transport. On summer evenings much of the town moves up to the beer cellars on the hills, and the Hain park along the river is the place for walks and swimming.

Bamberg is a beer town before anything else. It has eleven breweries, and the Franconian countryside around it more than 200. Its signature is Rauchbier, smoked beer, brewed in whole or in part with barley malt dried over a beechwood fire, which gives it a smoky flavour. Schlenkerla and Spezial are the best-known makers, each with its own tavern; Schlenkerla malts and smokes its own barley, and there are smoked versions of wheat beer and Bock as well. Weyermann, a malting company founded in Bamberg in 1879, supplies brewers around the world.

The food in the taverns is Franconian. Schäufele is pork shoulder roasted on the bone, its rind scored in a criss-cross pattern so that it crisps; it comes with Klöße, potato dumplings. Bratwurst, also served poached in a vinegar and onion stock, and Franconian wine are widely served.

The town's market gardens give it two more specialities. The Bamberger Hörnla is a potato variety, small, long and irregular, with firm yellow flesh and a nutty flavour, protected by the European Union as a regional speciality; the same name is also given to a croissant-like pastry from the town's bakeries.