Timber houses
Colourful lanes.
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Quedlinburg is a town just north of the Harz mountains in western Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany, about 50 km southwest of Magdeburg and 174 km southwest of Berlin in a straight line, with more than 24,000 people. It was a prosperous trading centre in the early Middle Ages and became a seat of power under the Ottonian dynasty in the 10th and 11th centuries. In 1994 its castle, church and old town, with some 2,100 half-timbered houses, were added to UNESCO's World Heritage List for their exceptional preservation and outstanding Romanesque architecture. Colourful half-timbered houses crowd along narrow, winding cobbled lanes, some leaning with age, around the market square and town hall. The old castle stands on a rocky hill above the town, looking out over a sea of red roofs. Visitors wander the old lanes without a plan and climb the castle hill for a view over the town. Quedlinburg is close to Wernigerode and the Harz mountains, and holds a Christmas market in its courtyards in December.
Colourful lanes.
A rooftop view.
In the courtyards.
Quedlinburg, north of the Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Half a day.
Wernigerode Castle.