Altenburg, Germany

Altenburg is a town of about 32,000 residents in eastern Thuringia, located roughly 50 kilometers south of Leipzig and first recorded in 976. The German national card game Skat was invented here in 1813, and the Altenburg Skat Museum traces that history alongside the 1790 Residenzschloss, which holds the largest collection of playing cards in the world. A 1450 castle crowns a 220-meter porphyry rock above the streets, while the 1873 Lindenau Museum displays around 500 Italian Renaissance paintings. Few towns of this size pack so many singular collections into a single ridge.