Chemnitz rewards visitors who look past the postwar concrete. The 7-metre Karl Marx head dominates the city centre and sets the tone: this is a place comfortable with its complicated history. Beyond the monument, there are genuinely good museums — one of the best archaeology collections in Saxony, a strong art museum with German Expressionism, and an extraordinary patch of 290-million-year-old petrified trees uncovered in the middle of the city. The Kaßberg district to the west is one of the largest intact Gründerzeit and Jugendstil neighbourhoods in Germany, good for an afternoon's wandering. As European Capital of Culture 2025, the city has invested heavily in its cultural offer, and the programme of events that year and beyond reflects a city rediscovering its own identity.