Audioguides Detmold

Charlemagne passed through here in 783, suppressing Saxon rebels at a river crossing. Detmold absorbed that founding violence and built something quieter on top of it: five centuries as the capital of the tiny Principality of Lippe, a Renaissance palace in the city center, and an outdoor museum that reconstructs what Germanic life looked like before the Romans arrived. The Hermannsdenkmal stands on a wooded ridge just outside the city, a colossal copper warrior erected in 1875 to commemorate the 9 AD ambush at Teutoburg Forest where Germanic tribes destroyed three Roman legions. It was built as a statement of nationalist pride; now it mostly gets climbed by school groups.

What Detmold doesn't shout about is its music.

The Hochschule für Musik fills the town with students from across Europe, and the Landestheater Detmold has been running performances since 1825 without much fuss. Two figures who shaped very different worlds grew up here: composer Engelbert Humperdinck, who wrote Hansel and Gretel, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who became Germany's Federal President. The city sits where the Teutoburg Forest meets open farmland, and on clear days the landscape stretches back towards the Weser Hills with nothing between you and the horizon.