Experience the best of Leipzig

Leipzig has been a trading city since the Middle Ages, and its fairs gave it arcades, courtyards and merchants' houses. Johann Sebastian Bach was cantor at the Thomaskirche from 1723 until his death, and the Thomanerchor, the boys' choir, has sung there since 1212. The Nikolaikirche was the starting point of the Monday demonstrations of 1989, and the 91-metre Monument to the Battle of the Nations marks the great battle of 1813.

Auerbachs Keller, in the Mädler Passage, is the tavern where Goethe set a scene of Faust, and the Zum Arabischen Coffe Baum is among the oldest coffee houses in Europe. The Spinnerei, a former cotton mill, is now full of galleries. South of the city, flooded former lignite pits form lakes, and Halle lies to the north-west, with Dresden and Meissen to the east.

Leipziger Allerlei, a stew of young vegetables with crayfish, is the old speciality, and the Leipziger Lerche is a small shortcrust pastry with marzipan. Gose, a salty, sour wheat beer, is the drink most linked with Leipzig. The Christmas market fills the old centre in winter, and the park woodlands along the rivers are best in spring.