Bautzen is one of eastern Germany's best-preserved medieval towns, perched on a rocky promontory above the Spree River in Upper Lusatia. Its skyline of eleven medieval towers rising over the old town is genuinely striking — more so than most German cities that were bombed flat in the war and rebuilt from scratch.
What makes Bautzen genuinely unusual is that it is bilingual. The town is the cultural heart of the Sorbs, a West Slavic people who have lived in this corner of Saxony for over a millennium. Road signs appear in both German and Upper Sorbian, the local radio broadcasts in Sorbian, and the traditional costumes worn at festivals are not a tourist put-on but an expression of a living culture. Roughly one in ten residents identifies as Sorbian.
The old town rewards an afternoon of wandering. The Reichenturm leans visibly — it is one of the most dramatically tilted towers north of the Alps, and you can climb it. The Ortenburg castle complex overlooks the river valley. Saint Peter's Cathedral has been shared since 1524 between Catholic and Protestant congregations, divided by an internal wall — Germany's oldest and only remaining interdenominational church of its kind.
Just outside the city, the suburb of Kleinwelka has Germany's largest hedge maze and the Saurierpark outdoor dinosaur park — a good option if you are travelling with children.