Germany’s largest federal state in size ( over 70,554 square kilometres) –the Free State of Bavaria- is slightly larger than West Virginia and slightly smaller than South Carolina. To pit it into a European perspective, Bavaria is twice as large as Belgium and about the same size as Ireland. Bavaria is one of the sixteen states of Germany.

A culture buff visiting Bavaria will hardly know where to turn next. There are more than 725 museums in the state with many offering priceless works by old masters, like Albrecht Dürer, more recent geniuses such as Picasso and Dufy, and including many leading contemporary painters. There are also two national parks, 17 nature reserves, 213 theatres and opera houses and a great number of palaces, royal residences and castles like the castles of King Ludwig II – Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee ( a replica of Versailles ) and Linderhof.

Bavaria’s great architectural treasure its truly at arm’s reach of every visitor. All you need to do is take a walk trough any town. The building styles cover almost twenty centuries, from the ancient Romanesque to the post-modern. Take the following examples: the oldest church on German soil, the Chapel of Our Lady in Würzburg, probably built in 706, and the futuristic largest "tented" roof in the world, suspended over the Olympic arena in Munich.