Halle, Germany

Halle (Saale) sits on the Saale River in Saxony-Anhalt with roughly 240,000 residents, making it the largest city in the state. George Frideric Handel was born here in 1685, and the Halle Handel Festival has honored that legacy each June since 1948. Giebchenstein Castle, dating from around 1500, overlooks the river, while the 1529 Moritzburg Castle now houses a modern art museum. The University of Halle-Wittenberg, founded in 1694, became the first German university to admit Jewish and women students. Inside the 1161 Market Church of Saint Mary, a 1518 bronze slab still shows the original portraits of Martin Luther and Justus Jonas.