Travel Guide Dachau

The small town of Dachau sits on high ground, and at its feet runs the beautiful and bubbling little river Amper. Dachau is a very old town, located about 20 km northwest of Munich. It was built in the ninth century on a marshy and wooded area. Historians have found traces of it in texts dating back to Charlemagne (805). This discovery is proof in black and white that its history began long before that of Munich (1158). Dachau has a population of about 47,000. The old town(Altstadt) has a certain charm and has been listed since 1984. But Dachau is obviously forever tainted by its history, and the Third Reich left a concentration camp as a legacy... Every year, some 800,000 visitors come to visit it. Numerous educational activities are carried out on a national and international level so that new generations can visit these infamous sites and learn from history. However, Dachau is more than just a Nazi concentration camp: the city boasts a palace and a magnificent Renaissance garden overlooking the city. In the 12th century, Dachau became the residence of the local counts, and in the 13th century, the dukes of the Wittelsbach family erected this summer palace. Seven hundred years later, it became a refuge for many artists and this tradition still continues.