3 Best Sights in Nurnberg (Nuremberg), Franconia and the German Danube

Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV commissioned the late-Gothic Frauenkirche in 1350, and it was built on the site of a synagogue that burned to the ground during the 1349 pogrom. The modern tabernacle, designed to look like a Torah scroll as a memorial to that despicable act, was built beneath the main altar in 1991. The church's main attraction is the Männleinlaufen, a clock dating from 1509, which is set into its facade. The clock is one of those colorful mechanical marvels at which Germans have long excelled; every day at noon, the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire glide out of the clock to bow to Emperor Charles IV before sliding back undercover. It's worth scheduling your morning to catch the display.

Nuremberg's central market square was once the city's Jewish Quarter. In 1349, Emperor Charles IV instigated a pogrom that left the Jewish Quarter in flames and more than 500 dead. He razed the ruins and resettled the remaining Jews so he could build this square. Towering over the northwestern corner, Schöner Brunnen (Beautiful Fountain) looks as though it should be on the summit of some lofty cathedral. Carved around the year 1400, the elegant 60-foot-high Gothic fountain is adorned with 40 figures arranged in tiers—prophets, saints, local noblemen, electors, Julius Caesar, and Alexander the Great. A golden ring set into the railing is said to bring good luck to those who touch it. A market still operates here on weekdays, with its colorful stands piled high with produce, fruit, bread, homemade cheeses and sausages, sweets, and anything else you might need for a snack or picnic. This square is also the site of the famous Christkindlesmarkt.

In a city with several striking churches, St. Lorenz is considered by many to be the most beautiful of all. Construction began around 1250 and was completed around 225 years later. Two towers flank the main entrance, which is covered with a forest of carvings. In the lofty interior, note the eye-catching works by sculptors Adam Kraft and Veit Stoss: in particular, seek out Kraft's great stone tabernacle, to the left of the high altar, and Stoss's Annunciation, suspended on a metal chain and facing the altar. There are many other carvings throughout the building, testimony to the artistic wealth of late-medieval Nuremberg.