Wernigerode

Wernigerode's old town holds around a thousand timber-framed buildings, including a town hall of the fifteenth century with two slate-clad towers and a facade of carved figures, and the Schiefes Haus, a mill house that leans visibly because water washed out its foundations. The castle above was remodelled in the 1860s in a historicist style with towers and turrets, a reworking of an older fortress. The town is the main terminus of the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen, a network of narrow-gauge steam lines totalling about a hundred and forty kilometres, whose Brocken line climbs to the summit of the Harz's highest mountain.

What you actually see

• The 1400s town hall - twin slate towers over a carved facade.
• The leaning mill house - a building tilted by water undermining its base.
• The historicist castle - a hilltop fortress remodelled in the 1860s.
• The steam railway - the terminus of the network that climbs the Brocken.

When to go

April to October; the Brocken railway runs year-round and is busiest in summer. Booking is advisable for the summit train. The town is crowded at midday.

Honest expectations

The castle is largely nineteenth-century remodelling. Brocken trains fill and the summit is often in cloud. The old town is heavily visited.

Nearby

The Brocken lies south; Quedlinburg is east.