Braunschweig (Brunswick in English) is the second-largest city in Lower Saxony after Hannover, a historically important seat of the powerful Welf dukes in the Middle Ages and the home city of Henry the Lion — the 12th-century Saxon duke whose bronze lion statue still stands on a pedestal on Burgplatz, the square where he built his castle and cathedral. Almost every major building around Burgplatz and the adjoining Altstadtmarkt dates from the High Middle Ages or the Hanseatic centuries that followed, and together they make up one of the most atmospheric medieval city centres in northern Germany — despite the fact that the Second World War flattened much of what was in between.
Two unusual things set Braunschweig apart from its neighbours. The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum holds one of the oldest art collections in Europe, open to the public since 1754 — Rembrandts, Vermeer's Girl with a Wine Glass, Holbein, Rubens, Cranach. And the traditional Braunschweig symbol of the lion still looms over the city: you see it carved on shop fronts, cast in bronze on fountains, and built of living ivy in the parks. Combine a half-day here with a day trip to the Harz mountains an hour south, or as an overnight stop on the way between Hannover and Berlin.