Germany Guide
Saxony
You'd expect Saxony (Sachsen), the state of the Saxons, to be a more robustly Germanic place. Yet if the concept is nebulous in history – the title was only coined for the state after a dynastic shuffle in the fifteenth century, leaving the heartland of the "tribe" northwest in Lower Saxony – it is elusive in character, too. Much of Saxony feels a mish-mash where the German cultural fabric is interwoven with that of Middle Europe.
Under GDR rule, the three largest cities of the regime outside the capital – Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz – found their ambitions stifled. Of the East German states outside Berlin, it may be Saxony that has benefited most from reunification. Nowadays Saxony likes to promote itself as the "state of the arts": the Land where Johann Sebastian Bach spent nearly half his life and whose distinctive landscapes inspired some of the finest work from Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. It is also the state that pioneered porcelain outside Asia and created some of the most ebullient Baroque architecture in Europe, both the products of Augustus the Strong, an absolutist Sun King under whose eighteenth-century rule Saxony blossomed into an artistic powerhouse. His legacy is evident wherever you go.
Erudite stuff. However, the state capital Dresden is evidence that Saxony doesn't only live in its past. Since reunification it has re-created the Baroque city that was shattered by the bombing raids of World War II, but it also fizzes with life in a bar and club scene that's as good a reason to visit as some of the biggest art blockbusters in Germany. Leipzig is similarly sized but entirely different in character: a dynamic mercantile city that has refound its rhythm after off-beat decades. The Land's communist legacy is most evident in erstwhile "Karl-Marx-Stadt" Chemnitz, worth visiting for its art and a nearby castle. Of the small towns, the most appealing is cobbled charmer Meissen, closely followed by Görlitz, hard against the Polish border. Yet Saxony also provides more visceral pleasures, with the weird sculpted cliffs of Saxon Switzerland a paradise for walkers and rock-huggers alike.
Highlights
1 Dresden Baroque ‘n' roll in the former Florence of the Elbe – after the glorious architecture and dazzling artistry, go bar-hopping in one of the most enjoyable Szene neighbourhoods in Germany.
2 Palaces around Dresden The getting there is part of the package when Augustus the Strong's Baroque palaces can be reached by vintage train and steamship.
3 Meissen Never mind Europe's first and finest porcelain factory, the picture-book-pretty Altstadt is idyllic.
4 Saxon Switzerland Spectacular views and sandstone massifs in the most scenic corner of Saxony, best savoured on a week-long walk that has been voted the most beautiful in Germany, but which can be sampled on a day-trip from Dresden.
5 Leipzig The dynamic trade-fair city that led the peaceful overthrow of the GDR regime has channelled its energy into a vigorous contemporary art scene and boisterous nightlife.