Bavaria

Celts built large fortified towns here, such as Manching on the Danube, before Rome made the south part of the province of Raetia and founded Augsburg, Regensburg, Kempten and Passau; the Limes frontier cut across Franconia. By the 6th century a people called the Bavarii had settled between the Alps and the Danube under their own dukes, until Charlemagne deposed the last of them, Tassilo III, in 788. The Wittelsbach family took the duchy in 1180 and held it until 1918. Franconia and Swabia went their own way under prince-bishops at Würzburg and Bamberg and free imperial cities such as Nuremberg, where Albrecht Dürer worked, and Augsburg, home of the Fugger bankers; Regensburg hosted the Empire's Perpetual Diet from 1663 to 1806.

Bavaria stayed Catholic through the Reformation and led the Catholic League in the Thirty Years' War. Allied with Napoleon, it became a kingdom in 1806 and absorbed Franconia and eastern Swabia. Ludwig I made Munich a showpiece capital, and his wedding in 1810 began the Oktoberfest. Ludwig II, king from 1864, built Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee before being declared unfit to rule and dying in Lake Starnberg in 1886. Bavaria joined the German Empire in 1871 with special rights.

In November 1918 revolutionaries in Munich deposed the Wittelsbachs and proclaimed the Free State. Munich then became the birthplace of the Nazi party and of Hitler's failed putsch of 1923; one of the regime's first concentration camps opened at Dachau in 1933, its party rallies were staged at Nuremberg, and the Nuremberg trials judged its leaders in 1945–46. After the war Bavaria turned from farming to high technology, and the Christian Social Union has led almost every state government since the 1950s.

Bavaria is three peoples: the Old Bavarians of the south and east, the Franconians in the north, and the Swabians around Augsburg, and Franconians object to being called Bavarian. The dialects differ accordingly. Most of the state is Catholic, with wayside shrines, onion-domed churches and a greeting of "Grüß Gott", though parts of Franconia around Nuremberg are historically Protestant. Politics carries a strong regional pride, and the state still calls itself a Free State.

Tracht, traditional dress — lederhosen, dirndls and loden jackets — is worn with conviction at festivals, weddings and church holidays, not only for tourists. Villages raise maypoles and guard them from theft by neighbouring villages, and in the Alps the autumn cattle drive brings garlanded cows down from the high pastures. Oberammergau has staged a Passion Play roughly every ten years since 1634, Richard Wagner's operas fill the Bayreuth Festival each summer, and Nuremberg's Christkindlesmarkt is one of Germany's best-known Christmas markets.

The beer garden is a civic institution: long tables under chestnut trees, where in traditional gardens guests may bring their own food and buy only the drinks. Regulars keep their Stammtisch, a reserved table in the local inn, and the card game Schafkopf is played across the south. Alpine towns keep crafts such as woodcarving at Oberammergau and violin-making at Mittenwald.

About 13 million people live in Bavaria. Munich has about 1.5 million residents and a metropolitan region of several million; Nuremberg, with about 530,000, forms a conurbation with Fürth and Erlangen; Augsburg, Regensburg, Ingolstadt and Würzburg follow, while Bamberg and Passau are smaller. Much of the east and north is rural and ageing, while the Munich region keeps growing.

The economy is among Europe's strongest. BMW is based in Munich and Audi in Ingolstadt, Siemens and Allianz are Munich companies, and Adidas and Puma both come from Herzogenaurach in Franconia. Munich is also a centre of insurance, media, software and aerospace, and its universities and research institutes attract staff from across the world. Tourism, dairy farming and forestry sustain the Alps and the Bavarian Forest.

The rhythm is that of a prosperous, traditional south: early starts, a Brotzeit snack in the late morning, a beer after work in the garden, and quiet Sundays of church, walks and family lunch. Munich's housing shortage and rents, traffic on the roads to the Alps and overcrowding at Neuschwanstein and the lakes are constant debates.

Old Bavarian cooking is pork and dumplings: Schweinebraten, roast pork with crackling, Schweinshaxe, a roast knuckle, Knödel of bread or potato, and red cabbage or sauerkraut. Leberkäse, a smooth baked meatloaf eaten in thick slices in a bread roll, and the white veal Weisswurst, traditionally eaten before noon with sweet mustard and a pretzel, are the classic snacks. Obatzda is a spread of ripe soft cheese, butter, onion and paprika, and Steckerlfisch, fish grilled on sticks, is a beer-garden favourite. Kaiserschmarrn, a torn, sugared pancake with fruit compote, and Dampfnudeln are sweet meals in themselves.

Franconia cooks differently. Nürnberger Rostbratwürste are finger-sized pork sausages grilled over beechwood and served in threes in a roll, Blaue Zipfel are sausages poached in vinegar and onion, and Schäufele is roast pork shoulder with a crackling crust. Nuremberg's Lebkuchen, spiced gingerbread, has protected status, and Munich's Prinzregententorte is a many-layered chocolate buttercream cake.

Beer is the drink: Helles, Weissbier made with wheat, dark Dunkel, strong Bock in spring, and monastery beers from Andechs and Weihenstephan. Franconia has hundreds of small village breweries, and Bamberg is famous for Rauchbier, a smoked beer. Franconian wine, mostly Silvaner and Müller-Thurgau, comes in the flat, round Bocksbeutel bottle.

Munich's sights run from the Marienplatz and the Frauenkirche to the Residenz, Nymphenburg Palace, the English Garden, the Pinakothek galleries, the Deutsches Museum, the Viktualienmarkt and the Hofbräuhaus; the Dachau concentration camp memorial lies just north. Nuremberg has its Kaiserburg castle, walled old town, Germanic National Museum and the documentation centre at the Nazi party rally grounds. Bamberg's old town and cathedral, with the town hall on an island in the river, and Regensburg's old town with its 12th-century Stone Bridge and cathedral are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The Romantic Road runs south from Würzburg — with its UNESCO-listed Residence and Marienberg fortress above the Main — through Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen, set inside a meteorite crater, to Augsburg, with the Fuggerei almshouses, and the pilgrimage church of Wies. It ends at Füssen, beneath Neuschwanstein and the Hohenschwangau castle. Ludwig II's other palaces are Linderhof, near Oberammergau, and Herrenchiemsee on an island in the Chiemsee.

The Bavarian Alps rise along the Austrian border. At Garmisch-Partenkirchen, host of the 1936 Winter Olympics, a cog railway and cable cars climb the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain at about 2,960 metres, and the Partnach Gorge cuts into the valley. In the south-east, Berchtesgaden National Park holds the Königssee and the Watzmann, and the Eagle's Nest stands above nearby Obersalzberg. Elsewhere, the Danube passes Weltenburg Abbey and Passau at its meeting with the Inn and Ilz, and the Bavarian Forest National Park covers the Czech border.