Neuss, Germany

Neuss sits on the Rhine River opposite Düsseldorf and is home to roughly 155,000 residents. The Romans founded the settlement in 16 BC as Novaesium, making it one of the oldest military forts in Germany. The 13th-century Quirinus Minster houses a marble high altar completed in 1745 by Andreas Schlüter, and a 1481 citizens' oath of allegiance to Mary earned the city the Marientitel title granted by Pope Sixtus IV. The 1995 Clemens-Sels-Museum displays 19th-century paintings alongside outsider art. Each year the Neuss Citizen Shooting Festival, founded in 1413, draws about 7,000 riflemen.