The Moravian Settlement at Bethlehem

The Moravians were a protestant community from Central Europe who built settlements to a deliberate plan wherever they went, and in 2024 Bethlehem was added to a World Heritage listing already covering their towns in Denmark, Germany and Northern Ireland. What survives here is the Colonial Industrial Quarter, an early industrial complex with a waterworks that piped water to the town in 1762, a tannery, and the 1741 Gemeinhaus, a log building that is the oldest structure in the city. The community lived communally by age and marital status, which is why buildings called the Single Sisters' House and Single Brethren's House still stand. Bethlehem later became a steel town, and the blast furnaces of that era loom over the river a few streets away.

What you actually see

• The Gemeinhaus - the 1741 log meeting house, the oldest building in the city.
• The Colonial Industrial Quarter - the waterworks, tannery and early workshops.
• The choir houses - the Single Sisters' and Single Brethren's buildings.
• The steel stacks - the preserved blast furnaces of the later industrial town.

When to go

May to December, with the Christmas market season in December the busiest by far, when the town leans hard on its name. Musikfest in August is one of the largest free music festivals in the country. Historic buildings keep limited hours and some open by tour only.

Honest expectations

The listed area is small and takes a couple of hours, and several key buildings are open only on guided tours at set times. The wider city is an ordinary post-industrial town. Visitors expecting the Christmas-card version of Bethlehem in any month other than December will find a quiet historic quarter instead.

Nearby

Philadelphia is an hour and a half south; the Pocono mountains are an hour north.