3 Best Sights in Germany

Erected in 1841–44, this open pavilion, fronted with three huge arches, was modeled on the 14th-century Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. From Odeonsplatz, it faces Ludwigstrasse, with Siegestor in the distance, and was built to honor Bavarian military leaders and the Bavarian army. Two huge Bavarian lions are flanked by the larger-than-life statues of Count Johann Tserclaes Tilly, who led Catholic forces in the Thirty Years' War, and Prince Karl Philipp Wrede, hero of the 19th-century Napoleonic Wars. It was turned into a militaristic shrine in the 1930s and '40s by the Nazis, to whom it was significant because it marked the site of Hitler's failed coup, or Putsch, in 1923. Hitler installed a memorial in 1933 to commemorate the Nazis killed that day, and during the Third Reich, all who passed the guarded memorial had to give the Nazi salute. Viscardigasse, a passageway behind Feldherrnhalle linking Residenzstrasse and Theatinerstrasse, which became known as Drückebergergasse (Shirkers' Lane), was used as a bypass by those who didn't want to salute the memorial. The memorial was removed in 1945.

The remains of a Roman fortress built in AD 120, the Römerkastell-Saalburg could accommodate a cohort (500 men) and was part of the fortifications along the Limes Wall, which ran from the Danube to the Rhine and was meant to protect the Roman Empire from barbarian invasion. It was restored in the early 1900s under the direction of the Kaiser. The site, which includes a museum of Roman artifacts, is 6½ km (4 miles) north of Bad Homburg on Route 456 in the direction of Usingen; there's a direct bus from Bad Homburg. There's also a small café.

A grim reminder of one aspect of Kiel's marine past is exhibited at this museum in Kiel-Laboe. The vessels of the much-feared German submarine fleet in both World Wars were mostly built and stationed in Kiel before leaving for the Atlantic, where they attacked American and British supply convoys. Today the submarine U995, built in 1943, serves as a public-viewing model of a typical World War II German submarine. The 280-foot-high Marineehrenmal (Marine Honor Memorial), in Laboe, was built in 1927–36. You can reach Laboe via ferry from the Kiel harbor or take B502 north.