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Bremen is a Hanseatic port city on the River Weser in northern Germany, about 60 kilometers upstream from the North Sea. With Bremerhaven it forms the smallest German state, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, and for more than a thousand years it has lived from trade, shipping and its proud tradition of civic freedom.
The heart of the old town is the market square, where the Gothic and Renaissance town hall and the stone Roland statue together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Around them stand the twin-towered cathedral and the bronze Town Musicians of Bremen, the donkey, dog, cat and rooster from the tale by the Brothers Grimm.
Close by, the expressionist Böttcherstraße and the tiny medieval lanes of the Schnoor quarter lead down to the Schlachte, a riverside promenade of beer gardens and boats. Further out are fine museums and green parks, and the artists' village of Worpswede lies in the moors to the northeast.
Bremen Market Square is the central square of the old town, in use since the time of Charlemagne and one of the oldest public squares in the city. It is framed by the town hall, the cathedral and the old Schütting guildhall, and it hosts the Christmas market and the autumn Freimarkt.
Bremen City Hall stands on the northeast side of the market square and is the seat of the mayor and senate. A landmark of Brick Gothic with a Weser Renaissance facade, it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 with the Roland as a symbol of civic self-rule in the old empire.
The Bremen Roland is a stone statue of the knight Roland, a paladin of Charlemagne, raised on Bremen's market square in 1404, facing the cathedral. It is the oldest surviving of the many Roland statues that stood for civic liberty in German cities, and it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Bremen Cathedral, named after Saint Peter, stands on the market square in the center of Bremen with its two tall western towers. A medieval building of sandstone and brick, it keeps two Romanesque crypts and was once the cathedral of the archbishops of Bremen, but it is now Protestant.
The Town Musicians of Bremen statue stands beside the town hall, a bronze by Gerhard Marcks showing a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster stacked one on another. It recalls the tale published by the Brothers Grimm in 1819, and visitors rub the donkey's front legs, which are said to bring good luck.
Böttcherstraße is a lane only about 100 meters long in central Bremen, famous for its unusual expressionist architecture. Most of its brick buildings went up from 1922 to 1931 at the initiative of the coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius, with Bernhard Hoetger in charge of the design.
The Schnoor is the oldest quarter of Bremen and the only part of the city center that keeps its medieval character. Its narrow lanes, named after old crafts linked to shipping such as rope making, are lined with tiny restored houses that now hold small shops, galleries and cafes.
The Schlachte is a promenade along the east bank of the Weser in the old town of Bremen, first recorded as a river bank in 1250. Once one of the city's harbors, where ships were loaded and unloaded, it is now lined with restaurants and beer gardens, and boats leave from here for trips on the river.
The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum on the Culture Mile by the old town, built in 1849 and enlarged several times. Its collection runs from the 14th century to today, with highlights by Monet, Manet and Cézanne and German painters such as Max Liebermann and Paula Modersohn-Becker.
Universum Bremen is a science center near the University of Bremen, opened in 2000 in a building whose 40,000 steel scales make it look like a cross between a whale and a mussel. Around 250 hands-on exhibits explore three themes, mankind, earth and the cosmos, and it is popular with families.
The Bürgerpark is the best known park in Bremen, laid out in the second half of the 19th century near the main station with lakes, lawns and woodland. Together with the city forest to the north it covers more than 200 hectares, with animal enclosures, boat hire, cafes and many sculptures.
Worpswede is a village in the Teufelsmoor northeast of Bremen, set below the low Weyerberg hill amid moors and meadows. An artists' colony grew there at the end of the 19th century, with painters such as Paula Modersohn-Becker, and its galleries, studios and old houses still draw many visitors.
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