Bregenz

The centerpiece of the 2000 year old city at the eastern shores of Lake Constance is the bulbous, Baroque Martinsturm (St. Martin’s Tower) located in the medieval center of town. In recent years, exceptional architects like Hans Hollein, Jean Nouvel and Peter Zumthor as well as the "Vorarlberger Baukünstler" group have played an important role in shaping the city’s appearance. The Kunsthaus is an architectural gem located opposite the marina from where pleasure boats leave to the island village of Lindau and the flower island of Mainau.

Lake Constance also provides the setting for the annual Bregenzer Festspiele, a renowned summer music festival that features a different opera every second year. The concerts are performed by the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra on the vast, open-air floating stage at the edge of the lake. Other highlights include the Bregenzer Frühling, a dance festival of international reputation, as well as hundreds of exhibitions, concerts etc.

The region also offers a variety of outdoor sports including cycling, mountain biking, walking, trekking, tennis, paragliding and all kinds of water sports. A panorama gondola takes you up Pfänder from where you enjoy fantastic views of the Swiss Alps, Lake Constance, the Allgau Alpen range, the peaks of the Bregenzerwald and all the way to Widderstein at the border to Tirol. An ideal way to explore the region is discovering the Bregenzerwald Cheese Road.

For more information on Bregenz, please visit www.bregenz.ws