Quedlinburg, Germany

Quedlinburg sits on the Bode river in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, where roughly 22,000 residents live among one of the largest intact medieval town centres in the country. First documented in 922, the town gained prominence when King Henry I and Queen Mathilde founded the collegiate foundation of Saint Servatius in 936, and the 997 abbey church still holds their tombs. The UNESCO-listed Old Town packs 1,300 half-timbered houses from six centuries into narrow lanes, the highest density of such buildings in Germany. Above it rises the Münzenberg hill, recorded in 1326 and crowned by the 1512 Wipertikirche with its ninth-century crypt, one of the oldest churches in eastern Germany.