Germany Guide
Saxony
The Markt
The heart of the historic city is the Markt. Goethe, who knew Leipzig as a law student in the 1760s, strides from a plinth on Naschmarkt in front of the Altes Börse, a pleasingly tubby Baroque stock-exchange that doubles as a cultural centre. The adjacent Altes Rathaus is more bombastic – a walloping Renaissance structure that testifies to Leipzig's commercial clout and whose elongated length is said to have the longest inscription of any building anywhere. Long passed over as the town hall, it now contains the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig (Tues– Sun 10am–6pm; €4, free first Tues of month), a potted run through early city history, and owns the only portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach painted in his lifetime. It's worth a visit for a magnificent 50m Festsaal lined with oils of assorted mayors. Temporary exhibitions are displayed in the Neubau cube on its north side (same times; €3, free first Tues of month). The Markt itself is on the west side of the Altes Rathaus, the venue of the trade fairs that shored up Leipzig's prosperity as early as 1190.