Zwickau offers two clearly distinct ways to explore its history: automotive manufacturing and the musical heritage of Robert Schumann. At the August Horch Museum, the names Horch, Audi, Auto Union, Trabant and Volkswagen come together in a timeline that ranges from historic vehicles to working machines powered by transmission drives. There are also staged scenes. Since 2004, the museum has presented Zwickau’s automotive history at the very site where the Audi company was founded. Visitors choosing their stay around specific cultural themes will find a clear focus here; architecture, collections and a leisure area offer other highlights.

Automotive History and Schumann

Music history is another key theme. Robert Schumann was born on 8 June 1810 in the corner house on Hauptmarkt in Zwickau. The Robert Schumann House preserves a collection dedicated to Schumann, containing more than 4,000 original manuscripts, and has a chamber music hall on the ground floor where concerts are held. His birthplace, the manuscripts and the concert hall reveal different aspects of the same musical connection: biographical roots, preserved works and performances. These aspects may appeal to different interests during your stay: the collection focuses on manuscripts handed down through the years, while concerts make use of the hall as a performance venue. Check current concert dates when planning a specific visit.

Historic Buildings and Collections

The city’s architectural history also offers a range of points of interest. The Priesterhäuser are among Germany’s oldest surviving urban residential buildings. The Gewandhaus was built between 1522 and 1525 and once housed the guild and trading hall of the cloth-makers’ guild. St. Mary’s Cathedral is one of the most important Late Gothic hall churches in Upper Saxony; visitors can see the winged altarpiece by Michael Wohlgemut there. Osterstein Castle was converted into a stately Renaissance castle between 1587 and 1590. These buildings represent different historical functions: urban housing, guild and trade life, religious architecture and Renaissance castle construction. Those interested in architectural history can explore these uses as distinct themes rather than reducing them to a single period.

The city’s cultural history also includes today’s Galerie am Domhof, which opened in 1878 as the exhibition hall of the Zwickau Art Association. The ZWICKAU ART COLLECTIONS Max Pechstein Museum brings together art and natural history collections in a listed building. The gallery’s history and the collections’ focus thus add further cultural perspectives to the biographical and architectural approaches.

Leisure in the City and Routes in the District

MuldeParadies is a leisure and recreation area on top of the B 93 tunnel. It includes children’s playgrounds, benches and a barbecue area. Another way to spend your leisure time is along the Muldendamm within the city of Zwickau, where you can stroll, cycle, jog, hike and relax. The section of the Muldendamm within the city is part of the 268-kilometre long-distance Mulde Cycle Route. Together, a leisure area with named facilities and a route suited to several activities offer different ways to get out and about.

The Zwickau District as a Natural Area

For a broader view of nature, the Zwickau District offers a separate level of travel destinations. It has an extensive, well-developed network of marked hiking trails, with plenty of rest stops and places to eat; around 700 kilometres can be explored on foot. The district currently has 14 Natura 2000 sites (FFH areas) and two bird sanctuaries, covering a total area of approximately 2,200 hectares. The “Mulden- und Chemnitztal” landscape conservation area encompasses mainly the course of the Zwickauer Mulde between Zwickau and Wolkenburg and covers around 4,348 hectares. When planning, you can therefore distinguish between cultural attractions and leisure options in Zwickau itself and hiking trails and protected areas at district level.

For an overview of destinations in the wider area: Zwickauer Land.