Hotels in Chemnitz

Chemnitz spent decades as Karl-Marx-Stadt, and the seven-metre bronze bust of Marx, nicknamed Der Nischel by locals, still anchors the square where 80,000 people gathered for the opening of its year as European Capital of Culture in 2025. The programme, titled C the Unseen, spreads over 200 art projects that reinterpret the city's industrial past rather than hide it.

Expect handsome Art Nouveau villas and confident modernist buildings sitting next to blunt tower blocks, since rebuilding here was as much a political statement as a practical one. It is honest, unpolished Saxony rather than a postcard city, with more going on than its low profile abroad suggests. Stay near the Marx monument and Bruhl for the museums and culture-year venues.