Explorer Leipzig

The Old Town Hall was built in 1556-57 under mayor Hieronymus Lotter on the east side of Leipzig's Markt square and is considered one of Germany's most important Renaissance civic buildings. It served as the seat of the city council until 1905, when administration moved to the New Town Hall. It now houses the Leipzig City History Museum.

Auerbachs Keller is Leipzig's second-oldest restaurant, with a wine bar recorded on the site as early as 1438. It occupies five historic dining rooms beneath the Mädler Passage arcade and owes its fame to Goethe's play Faust, where Mephistopheles first takes Faust drinking here.

St. Thomas Church is a late-Gothic Lutheran hall church in central Leipzig, home to the Thomanerchor boys' choir founded around 1212. Johann Sebastian Bach served as its music director from 1723 until his death in 1750 and is buried inside. Allied bombing damaged the church in 1943.

The Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig traces its roots to an art association founded in 1837 and first opened to the public in 1858. Its current glass-cube building on the former Sachsenplatz opened in 2004 and shows works from the late Middle Ages to today, including paintings by Cranach, Friedrich and Beckmann.

St. Nicholas Church is one of Leipzig's main churches, begun in Romanesque style in 1165 and rebuilt as a Gothic hall church in the 16th century, with Baroque additions including its tower in the 18th century. In 1989 it became the starting point of the Monday Demonstrations against communist rule.

The Museum in der Runden Ecke occupies the former Leipzig district headquarters of the East German Ministry for State Security. Its permanent exhibition, Stasi - Macht und Banalität, documents the agency's structure and surveillance methods through original offices, equipment and files. The building was a focal point of the 1989 revolution.

The Gewandhaus is Leipzig's concert hall and home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. The current building, the third to carry the name, opened on Augustusplatz in 1981 to a design by architect Rudolf Skoda and seats 1,900 people. In 1989 it hosted public talks on reforming East Germany.

Leipzig Zoo opened on 9 June 1878 in the Zentrum-Nordwest district and now covers about 27 hectares, home to roughly 850 species. Its features include Gondwanaland, an indoor tropical rainforest hall, and Pongoland, a house for gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans.

The Monument to the Battle of the Nations commemorates the 1813 defeat of Napoleon's army by the Russian, Prussian, Austrian and Swedish coalition at Leipzig. Completed in 1913 for the battle's centenary, the 91-metre monument has over 500 steps to a viewing platform and houses the Forum 1813 museum at its base.

Belantis is a 27-hectare theme park south of Leipzig, opened in 2003 with attractions themed around the legends of various ancient civilizations. It is the largest amusement park in central and eastern Germany, with more than 60 attractions including four roller coasters and water rides.