Classical town of Weimar - most attractions of Weimar are closely connected with famous names like Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Nietzsche and many more, who all made Weimar their home. That little World Heritage town with about 60.000 inhabitants is just a stone’s throw away from Erfurt. As center of art and culture Weimar was titled culture capital of Europe in 1999. Almost all attractions of Weimar are within walking distance, what makes Weimar easy to explore.

Weimar is a great mix of interesting, restored architecture, parks, gardens and numerous cultural monuments which are densely packed together - although the city center of Weimar was terribly devastated by bomb attacks in Word War II.

But it is not only Weimar itself - the history of Weimar is world-famous as well. The National Theater of Weimar was the place, where Germany’s first republican constitution was drafted in 1919 - the Weimar Republic.

Another important event was the foundation of Bauhaus school and movement in 1919 by Walter Gropius, who drew as director of Bauhaus school top artists like Feininger, Klee and Kandinsky to Weimar.

Weimar is directly located on the Autobahn A4 (Dresden-Frankfurt)

• the tourist information is situated at Theaterplatz

• Walk from the Goethe square with the old tower Kasseturm to the famous Goethe-Schiller-statue (one of the most famous photos of Weimar) in front of the German National Theater. Also look at the biggest church St.Peter and Paul (Herder church) in Weimar Germany, where the philosopher Herder worked as court preacher and Bach as organist.
• You shouldn’t miss attractions of Weimar like the Town’s Castle (Stadtschloss) with collections and exhibitions or the baroque church St.Jacob, where Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Christiane Vulpius were married.
• Goethe attractions Weimar: Follow the Goethe traces to the Goethe house, where he has been living from 1775 until his death in 1882, then pass the Goethe-Schiller-Archive (with Goethe’s hand-written estate) to the famous Goethe Garden house in the wide Ilmpark
• Don’t miss Schiller house, where Goethe’s closest friend Friedrich Schiller has been living from 1799 to 1805. Beside the death bed you can see his working desk, where he penned Wilhelm Tell and other works.
• Goethe and Schiller were interred in the Fürstengruft at historic cemetery along with Duke Carl August
• Visit the Anna Amalia Library. After a big fire it is restored again, including its famous Rococo Room

Because of the foundation of Bauhaus Weimar and working of Goethe in Weimar almost everything is under protection of UNESCO. Since 1998 the “classical Weimar” has been on the World Heritage’s list with 11 sites, because its famous role as intellectual center of Germany in the 18th century (e.g. Town’s Castle, Wittumspalais, Anna-Amalia-Library, Belvedere Castle, house of Goethe in Weimar, Schiller House).

Weimar got a second UNESCO World Heritage „Bauhaus Weimar und Dessau“ thanks to Walter Gropius, who founded the Bauhaus Weimar in 1919, one of the most important art- and architecture schools of the 20th century. The Bauhaus aimed to connect all arts in ideal unity, with clearness, objectivity and advisability. Famous artists such as L. Feininger, P. Klee und W. Kandinsky joined the Bauhaus movement. Under the pressure of the Nazis the Bauhaus was closed and moved to Dessau in 1925.

• Fans of castles will also find famous attractions in Weimar for their taste - there is Anna Amalia’s 18th century Tiefurt Castle surrounded by a nice english-style garden outside the city of Weimar. But more famous is the lovely Belvedere Castle, that you can easily reach by car or by foot. It is a nice 4 km walk from the city’s center through the Goethe park. Then you reach the former hunting palace which is surrounded by a nice park - Belvedere castle belongs to the World Heritage of Weimar.
• visit Concentration Camp and Buchenwald Memorial on Ettersberg hill, it is 10km away

• Take some time for a day trip from Weimar to the bigger city of Erfurt (20 km) with its beautiful old town.
• Another destination could be Eisenach with the World Heritage Wartburg Castle, reachable in less than one hour

• Weimar art festival in August
• Weimarer Zwiebelmarkt (onion market)