UNESCO World Heritage in Bavaria

Channels Overflowing with History

Augsburg’s water system is 800 years old. It represents a unique example of urban water management and has been developed over centuries. The system supplied people with drinking water and service water for energy, hygiene and sewage disposal. It is worth noting that drinking and process water have been strictly separated since the 15th century.

The World Heritage Site includes 22 structures that form the basis of a canal network: Weirs, water pumping stations, power stations, wells and a canoe route. The water is supplied by the Lech, Wertach and Singold rivers and springs. At the Hochablass, a weir and sluice complex in the south of Augsburg, the Lech River's water is still diverted for most of the canals. In the past, it was mainly used to power mills.

The drinking water flowed to Augsburg from the spring area to the south, the city forest. It reached the upper town by means of water towers with pumping stations. In the modern era, Augsburg has become famous throughout Europe for its effective water management. With the industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries, the demand for hydropower grew. The canal system was then expanded and numerous hydroelectric power stations were built. One spectacular use came in 1972, when an old canal was transformed into the world’s first artificial whitewater canoe course for the Olympic Games in Munich.

More about the World Heritage Site: 
Augsburg-Tourismus.de
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The episcopal and imperial city in the heart of Franconia is situated on seven hills. It is also known as “Franconian Rome”. Bamberg’s Old Town is considered a unique work of urban art from the period between the High Middle Ages and the Baroque era and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. It is notable for its 1,200 architectural monuments dating from the 11th to 18th centuries. The Old Town is overlooked by the Romanesque imperial cathedral of St. Peter and St. George with its four towers and the famous statue of the Bamberg Horsemen from the time of the Hohenstaufen dynasty inside.

The baroque Neue Residenz Palace and the Alte Hofhaltung, or Old Court, complement the cathedral square. Other highlights include the Brückenrathaus, the Old Town Hall that was built into the Regnitz River, the Rose Garden, with its view over the Old Town, the tanners’ houses along the Alter Kanal, or Old Canal, the milling district and the “Little Venice” fishermen’s village. What you won’t find on the UNESCO list but is just as deserving of world cultural recognition is Bamberg beer, especially the famous spicy smoked beer.

More about the World Heritage Site: bamberg.info
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The Old Town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof (on the north bank of the Danube) boasts the largest stock of Romanesque and Gothic architecture north of the Alps. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 2006. The area contains 1,000 monuments and extends over 183 hectares, which is the equivalent of 256 football pitches. Regensburg reached this size around the year 1320. At the time, the city was booming as a transhipment centre on the continental trade routes to Italy, Bohemia, Russia and Byzantium. It was during this period, the 12th to 14th centuries, that it began to take shape.

St. Peter’s Cathedral stands proudly in the centre and is visible from afar. It is the only Gothic cathedral in Bavaria. Building work came to an end when the city ceased to be a trading metropolis in the late Middle Ages. As a result, large parts of the Old Town have endured through the centuries with exceptional unity. Regensburg’s Old Town is the only medieval city in Germany that has been preserved in its entirety and is still functioning today.

More about the World Heritage Site: regensburg.de
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The Roman military border that ran along the southern bank of the Danube from Bavaria to Bulgaria and Romania is known as the Danube Limes. The “wet” border had a length of 1,000 kilometres and existed from the 1st to the 5th century. It started at Hienheim near Neustadt a. d. Donau, where the Upper German-Rhaetian Limes met the river.

Because the Danube was difficult to cross due to its swampy, winding banks, the Romans did not build a border wall, unlike at the Upper German-Rhaetian Limes. Instead, it was the legionary camps that formed the backbone of the defence line. In between were forts, small fortifications and watchtowers connected by a road. Civilian towns with baths and shrines were built at the garrison sites. This allowed soldiers and civilians in “Bavaria” to enjoy the comforts of Roman culture. In the five “Roman Museums  along the Bavarian Danube Limes” in Kelheim, Regensburg, Straubing, Künzing and Passau, visitors can marvel at the impressive artefacts and learn more about the life of the Romans on the Danube.

More about the World Heritage Site: donau-limes.de (only in German)

Between the late 1st and the middle of the 3rd century, there was a fortified border separating the Roman Empire from Germania. It stretched from Bad Hönningen/Rheinbrohl on the Rhine River to Fort Eining outside Regensburg. This “Limes” was 550 kilometres long (the longest archaeological monument in Europe!) and was dotted with over 100 military camps and 900 watchtowers. In the province of Upper Germania it was constructed as a wooden palisade or earth wall and ditch, in Rhaetia (east of Lorch near Schwäbisch-Gmünd) as a stone wall. At the natural border of the Main River, there was no continuous barrier; isolated watchtowers and forts were sufficient.

In addition to original Roman relics, today you can see reconstructions, excavations and replicas, but in some places you can still see the Limes earth wall itself. It then crosses the forest and fields in a straight line. The Bavarian portion of the Limes includes 49 kilometres along the Main River in Lower Franconia and 109 kilometres of land border in Middle Franconia, Upper Bavaria and Lower Bavaria. One highlight is the fort, Roman baths and Roman museum with an information centre in Weissenburg in Middle Franconia. There are three tourist routes that connect the Upper German-Rhaetian border: the German Limes Road and the German Limes Cycle Route and Hiking Trail.

More about the World Heritage Site: roemer-welt.de (only in German)

When King Ludwig II needed a break from everyday life, he would retreat to the dream worlds of his four historic castles: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, the King's House on Schachen and Herrenchiemsee. He had these magnificent buildings constructed solely for this purpose. Just six weeks after the King's death in 1886, the palaces were opened to the public for the first time. The magnificent palaces in idyllic surroundings in Swabia and Upper Bavaria have been a tourist magnet ever since and attract more more than a million visitors every year. They have been listed as World Heritage Sites since July 2025.

More information in our listicle on King Ludwig's Fairytale Castles