Top Ten Things To Do In Heidenheim An Der Brenz

An industrial town in Swabia might seem an unusual holiday destination, but Heidenheim an der Brenz combines the facilities of a modern town with a charming old centre, a remarkable castle and historic destinations, along with a renowned music festival. Find out more here.

1. Museum im Römerbad

Museum

The medieval town walls are still visible in places, folded into the more modern town environment, and a short distance away the Museum im Römerbad (Roman Baths Museum) allows you to explore the street-scape of Aquileia, the Roman settlement which lies three metres below current street level.

Picasso, Art Nouveau and contemporary art

The town’s Art Museum is now housed in a striking Art Nouveau building which was formerly the town baths. The former baths are now an exhibition hall, and elsewhere the collection includes fine Picasso engravings and the world’s largest collection of Picasso posters. Thanks to the town’s Sculpture Symposium, which ran from 1997 to 2013, the townscape has a number of striking contemporary artworks and the Tourist Information Office can provide a tour.

Kunstmuseum Heidenheim, Marienstraße 4, Heidenheim an der Brenz, Germany, +49 7321 3274811
Tourist Information, Hauptstraße 34, Heidenheim an der Brenz, Germany, +49 7321 3274910

Further afield by bike

Heidenheim is at the centre of a fine array of cycle routes and the route along the River Brenz enables you to cycle all the way to the Black Sea via the river Danube. The Heidenheim Tourist Office has leaflets detailing the wide variety of themed cycle tours, and both Neresheim and Königsbronn are accessible by bike.

Opera Festival

A feature of Heidenheim in the summer is the opera festival which presents a range of activities including opera, concerts and children’s theatre in June and July. Opera is presented both indoors (in the Congress Centre Theatre) and outdoors (in the atmospheric surroundings of the Knights Hall in the castle). Currently the festival features the early operas of Verdi with Nabucco and I Lombardi in 2018.