Esslingen am Neckar, Germany: medieval towers, canals and the country's oldest half-timbered houses

Just upstream from Stuttgart, Esslingen am Neckar hides one of the most complete medieval townscapes in southern Germany. Water channels thread between the houses - locals call the quarter Little Venice - and at the Hafenmarkt stands a row of timber-framed houses begun around 1260, reckoned to be the oldest of their kind in the country. A city of around 93,000 people in Baden-Württemberg, Esslingen lies on the Neckar about 15 kilometres south-east of Stuttgart and roughly 75 kilometres north-west of Ulm.

More than two hundred half-timbered houses and some eight hundred protected monuments crowd the old town, which came through the Second World War almost unscathed. Above them rises the Burg, the hillside citadel whose covered stairway and "Dicke Turm", or fat tower, are reached through terraced vineyards.

A free imperial city of wine and trade

First recorded in 777, Esslingen grew rich on the medieval road between northern and southern Europe and held the rank of Free Imperial City until it passed to Württemberg in 1802. Its prosperity shows in the Gothic churches of St. Dionys and the Frauenkirche and in the Old Town Hall, built around 1430, whose Renaissance north front carries an ornate astronomical clock from 1589. The town is also home to Germany's oldest sparkling-wine house, founded in the early nineteenth century.

Towers, vineyards and a famous market

Two medieval gate towers, the Schelztorturm and the Wolfstor of the 1260s, still mark the edge of the old defences, and the climb to the citadel rewards walkers with a sweeping view over rooftops and vines to the river. Each December the squares fill with one of Germany's best-loved medieval Christmas markets, where stallholders dress and trade in period style.