Nuremberg — a city of culture

The Germanisches National Museum. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Fans of museums, music and theater should fall in love with the German city of Nuremberg, about 150 kilometers north of Munich.

Visitors can choose from the city’s more than 40 museums, about 20 theaters and numerous cultural events. Masterpieces by Nuremberg artists such as Veit Stoss, Adam Kraft and Peter Vischer feature regularly in the town and churches.

Among the museums in the city, the Germanisches National Museum is the country’s largest museum on culture and history.

It exhibits art and cultural objects from German-speaking regions, ranging from the Stone Age until the present. Treasured pieces of the collection include paintings by Albrecht Dürer, and Veit Stoss. Visitors will feel as if they have time-traveled to the era of patrician families when viewing the historical costumes and ancient collections in the museum.

In the Toy Museum and the Museum for Industrial Culture, visitors can learn more about Nuremberg’s long tradition in toy production and manufacturing. Those interested in communications and railroads can visit the Transportation Museum. Art fans can go to the New Museum to enjoy contemporary art, architecture and design.

Blue Night, an event held each May, features exhibitions, concerts and plays. With blue light installations glowing in the streets, guests can watch brilliant short videos projected on the walls of old buildings.

Music lovers have many options also, such as the International Organ Week Nuremberg in May, the largest and oldest festival for sacred music in Europe. It draws national and international artists and music admirers every year. The Rock in the Park Festival in June showcases not only rock, but also punk, metal, pop and rap. From late July to early August, more than 100,000 visitors gather in the park for the free-of-charge Classic Open Air – Picnic in the Park, with performances from the Nuremberg State Philharmonic and the Nuremberg Symphony.

Another famous open-air music festival is Bardentreffen, which usually attracts more than 200,000 music lovers, singers and song writers from all over the world each August. The city’s theaters offer opera, concerts, plays, ballets and children’s theater. For those with children, the International Puppet Theater Festival in May or the Panoptikum Festival in February, the European children’s theater festival, are recommended.