Bamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main.

The Old Town of Bamberg is included in the UNESCO World Heritage, since it has retained its medieval look and was one of the few German cities that sustained virtually no damage during WWII. 2005 the city established a documentation centre to support World Heritage activities. Some of the main sights are:

• Cathedral (1237), with the tombs of emperor Henry II and Pope Clement II
  
• Alte Hofhaltung, residence of the bishops in the 16th and 17th centuries
  
• Neue Residenz, residence of the bishops after the 17th century
  
• Old Town Hall (1386), built in the middle of the Regnitz River, accessible by two bridges
  
• Klein-Venedig ("Little Venice"), a colony of picturesque fishermen's houses from the 19th century along one side of the river Regnitz.

Cathedral
The cathedral is a late Romanesque building with four imposing towers. It was founded in 1004 by the emperor Henry II, finished in 1012 and consecrated on May 6, 1012. It was later partially destroyed by fire in 1081. The new cathedral, built by St. Otto of Bamberg, was consecrated in 1111, and in the 13th century received its present late-Romanesque form.
The cathedral is about 94 m long, 28 m broad, 26 m high, and the four towers are each about 81 m high. Of its many works of art may be mentioned the magnificent marble tomb of the founder and his wife, the empress Cunigunde, considered the masterpiece of the sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider, and carved between 1499 and 1513. Another treasure of the cathedral is an equestrian statue known as the Bamberg Horseman (German: Der Bamberger Reiter). This statue, possibly belonging to the emperor Conrad III, most likely dates to approximately 1200.

Neue Residenz
The Neue Residenz (New Palace) (1698-1704) was initially occupied by the prince-bishops, and from 1864 to 1867 by the deposed King Otto of Greece. The magnificent Rosengarten (Rose Garden) offers excellent views of the city.

Castle Altenburg
The castle is located at the highest of Bamberg's seven hills. It was mentioned for the first time in 902 BCE.[citation needed] Between 1251 and 1553 it was the residence of Bamberg's bishops. Destroyed in 1553 by Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, it was used, after scanty repairs, only as a prison, and increasingly decayed.
In 1801 doctor A. F. Marcus bought the castle and completely repaired it. His friend, the famous German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, who was very impressed by the building, lived there for a while. The next owner, Anton von Greifenstein, founded in 1818 an association to save the castle. This society still maintains the whole property today.

Other sights
Bamberg Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall)Other noteworthy churches are the Jakobskirche, an 11th-century Romanesque basilica; the St Martinskirche; the Marienkirche or Obere Pfarrkirche (1320-1387), which has now been restored to its original pure Gothic style. The Michaelskirche, 12th-century Romanesque (restored), on the Michaelsberg, was formerly the church of a Benedictine monastery secularized in 1803, which now contains the Burgerspital, or almshouse, and the museum and municipal art collections.

Of the bridges connecting the sections of the lower town the most interesting is the Obere Brücke, completed in 1455. Halfway across this, on an artificial island, is the Rathaus or City Hall (rebuilt 1744-1756). The royal lyceum, formerly a Jesuit college, contains notable collections and the royal library of over 300,000 volumes. The picturesque Old Palace (Alte Hofhaltung) was built in 1591 on the site of an old residence of the counts of Babenberg. Noteworthy among the monuments of the town is the Maximilian fountain (1880), with statues of Maximilian I of Bavaria, the emperor Henry II and his wife, Conrad III and St Otto, bishop of Bamberg.