At the Christmas market in Augsburg, Baveria, Germany

 Christmas in Germany is first and foremost a family celebration. For many people, however, visiting a Christmas market is an essential part of preparing for the festival itself.

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(in Bavaria, Germany) The city of Augsburg lies 50 kilometers (~31 mi.) west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the Regierungsbezirk (administrative district) of Schwaben (Swabia) with an impressive Altstadt (Old City). The third-largest city in Bavaria. Augsburg, is home to the institutions of the Landkreis (County).

+ After Neuss, Trier, Cologne and Xanten, Augsburg is one of Germany's oldest cities, founded in 15 BCE by the Romans as Augusta Vindelicorum (named after the Roman emperor Augustus). It was a Free Imperial City from 1276-to-1803 and the home of the patrician Fugger and Welser families that dominated European banking in the 16th century. The city played a prominent role in the Reformation as the site of the 1530 Augsburg Confession and the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. The Fuggerei, the oldest social housing complex in the world, was founded in 1513 by Jakob Fugger.

+ Augsburg lies at the junction of the Wertach and Lech rivers and extends over the plateau country between the two rivers. Traces of an Early Bronze Age settlement have been found at the site. The town was founded by Nero Claudius Drusus, a younger brother of Tiberius (later emperor). It was the seat of a bishopric by 739 CE, and the invading Hungarians were defeated by King Otto I in 955 on the plain south of the town. After Augsburg became an imperial free city it joined the Swabian League in 1331. The business houses, headed by the Fugger and Welser merchant families, were responsible for Augsburg’s development in the 15th and 16th centuries as a major European banking and commercial center, encouraging both the arts and the sciences. The artists Hans Holbein the Elder, Hans Holbein the Younger, and Hans Burgkmair the Elder were natives of the town.

+ The largest city on the Romantic Road, Augsburg is also one of Germany’s oldest, founded by the stepchildren of Roman emperor Augustus more than 2,000 years ago. As an independent city state from the 13th century, it was also one of its wealthiest, free to raise its own taxes, with public coffers bulging on the proceeds of the textile trade. Banking families such as the Fuggers and the Welsers even bankrolled entire countries and helped out the occasional monarch. From the 16th century, however, religious strife and economic decline plagued the city. (Augsburg joined the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806).

+ Shaped by Romans, medieval artisans, bankers, traders and, more recently, industry and technology, this attractive city of spires and cobbles is an easy day trip from Munich or an engaging stop on the Romantic Road.

+ The Christmas market in Augsburg (pictured here) is one of Germany's oldest such festival, dating back to the 15th century. Since 1949 it has been known as the "Christkindlesmarkt":