Forchheim
Forchheim is a town in Upper Franconia in northern Bavaria, and also the seat of the administrative district of Forchheim.
Forchheim is a town in Upper Franconia in northern Bavaria, and also the seat of the administrative district of Forchheim. Forchheim is a former royal city, and is sometimes called the Gateway to the Franconian Switzerland, referring to the region of outstanding natural beauty to the north east of the town. Nowadays Forchheim is most famous for its ten day long beer and music festival (Annafest) which takes place in late July in an idyllic wooded hillside, home to 24 beer gardens, on the outskirts of the town. Forchheim's population, as of December 2013, was 30,705, and its land area is 44.95 square kilometres. Its position is 49° 44' N, 11° 04' E and its elevation is 265 metres above sea level.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Forchheim
6 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01Eggolsheim
Eggolsheim is a municipality in the district of Forchheim in Bavaria in Germany.
5.7 km · market municipality in Landkreis Forchheim in Germany · Wikipedia - 02Wiesenthau Castle
Schloss Wiesenthau stands on the northeastern edge of the eponymous municipality at the foot of the Ehrenbürg in northern Bavaria. The Renaissance building is a three-winged country house with 4 mid-16th century corner towers and the remains of an enceinte.
5.6 km · cultural heritage monument D-4-74-175-7 (0) in Wiesenthau, Bavaria · Wikipedia - 03
- 04Stadtbefestigung
Forchheim Fortress was laid out after the occupation of the town of Forchheim during the Second Margrave War by the Bishopric of Bamberg. Today about one third of the fortification works have survived and have been incorporated into the municipal parks.
200 m · cultural heritage monument D-4-74-126-3 (0) in Forchheim, Bavaria · Wikipedia - 05Burk Castle
Burk Castle is a levelled medieval motte and bailey castle in the area known as Beim Schanzbach, about 550 metres south-southwest of the church in Burk, a village in the borough of Forchheim in the county of Forchheim in the south German state of Bavaria. Nothing has survived of the castle which was mentioned in the records in 1127.
1.5 km · building in Forchheim, Upper Franconia, Germany · Wikipedia - 06Kersbach Castle
Kersbach Castle is a levelled medieval motte castle in the area of Pfarrgartenstraße 1 in the village of Kersbach, in the borough of Forchheim in the eponymous county in the south German state of Bavaria. Nothing of the old motte castle has survived above ground.
4.5 km · building in Forchheim, Upper Franconia, Germany · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What Wikivoyage says to see
- 01Kaiserpfalz
- 02Town Hall
- 03Kellerberg
- 04Burgruine Streitburg
- 05Burgruine Neideck
Next to Streitburg on a neighboring hill, this castle ("Neid" means envy) is said to have fallen victim to the same quarrel as Streitburg although, again, the actual history was different.
- 06Pfalzmuseum
From Wikivoyage: Forchheim, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Things to do
Annafest is probably the most noteworthy event in town and regionally second only to the Bergkrichweih in Erlangen. It is usually held around late July, early August and draws crowds from throughout the region.
From Wikivoyage: Forchheim, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Where to eat
Zollhaus, Hauptstraße 4, info@zollhaus-forchheim.de. Mains €10-15.
From Wikivoyage: Forchheim, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Forchheim
- Airports
- Nuremberg (NUE), 25 km · Erfurt-Weimar (ERF), 140 km · Karlovy Vary (KLV), 143 km
- Stations
- Forchheim (Oberfr), 900 m
- Erfurt → Forchheim140 km · quickest by road, 2h 42m · €19–27
- Munich → Forchheim180 km · quickest by road, 2h 45m · €21–29
- Stuttgart → Forchheim172 km · quickest by road, 3h 7m · €23–32
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Forchheim
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Forchheim. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get aroundIf you stay longer a car or bike might be a good idea, especially for day trips that can't be done by train.
- Go nextForchheim is the perfect entry point for (though not located inside of) Franconian Switzerland If you enjoy old towns Bamberg makes for a fascinating, and easy, day trip, as there is a direct train connection
From Wikivoyage: Forchheim, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 01480 km
- 02577 km
- 03630 km
- 04712 km
- 05839 km
If you know how people move in Forchheim – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Forchheim
Forchheim is 30 km from Nuremberg, the nearest large city, whose note carries the wider picture.
- Forchheim Districtdistrict in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany3.8 km
- Pinzbergmunicipality in Landkreis Forchheim in Germany3.7 km
- Heroldsbachmunicipality in Landkreis Forchheim in Germany4.7 km
- Hausenmunicipality in Landkreis Forchheim in Germany4.4 km
- Wiesenthaumunicipality in the district of Forchheim, Bavaria, Germany5.4 km
- Poxdorfmunicipality in Landkreis Forchheim in Germany5.9 km