Every design for Würzburg

Long before the Festung Marienberg was built, its hill held a Bronze Age refuge castle, then the Celtic Segodunum and later a Roman fort. Today the town below has grown into a place shaped as much by students as by its bishops: the university, founded in 1402, is the oldest in Bavaria, and tens of thousands of students set the pace of everyday life.

The town fills a bowl in the middle Main valley, inside the Main triangle, ringed by the Spessart, the Rhön and the Steigerwald. The river runs through its western part, the Alte Mainbrücke spans it, and down by the water the Alter Kranen marks Würzburg's lowest point. The slopes and the climate have made this wine country, and three of Germany's fifteen largest wine estates are based in the town. The Aussichtsturm Frankenwarte, a lookout tower, stands near the town's highest point.

And then there is the Residenz Würzburg, partly badly damaged in the war, restored, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. Anyone who has crossed its Hofgarten knows why a map of Würzburg is worth wearing.