Augsburg

Augusta Vindelicorum to the Romans who founded it in 15 BC, Fuggerstadt in the age of the bankers whose loans helped decide who wore the emperor’s crown. Bertolt Brecht, born here in 1898, is said to have called the train to Munich the best thing about the place, and plenty of visitors take his word for it and give the Town Hall an hour before heading for the platform.

Much of what they leave behind is water: canals that kept tanneries, mills and the butchers’ hall running wind through the Old Town beneath more than 500 bridges, and the whole network of canals, towers and fountains joined UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2019.

VoiceMap’s self-guided audio tours bring depth to the landmarks and wander the quarters around them. Let Jakob Fugger show you where his Golden Scriptorium stood, follow the canals of the Lech quarter to the water towers at the Red Gate, and stop outside Brecht’s birth house to decide whether he had a point.

Plug in your earbuds, let the train to Munich leave without you, and say Grüß Gott to Augsburg.