2 Best Sights in The Black Forest, Germany

Three kilometers (2 miles) north of Calw, Hirsau has ruins of a 9th-century monastery, now the setting for a museum, a weekend festival in June, and the Klostersommer open-air concerts in July and August. Buy advance tickets for the concerts at the Calw tourist office.

The little town of Maulbronn, 45 km (28 miles) due east of Karlsruhe, is home to the best-preserved medieval monastery north of the Alps; its entire complex of 30 buildings is on UNESCO's World Heritage list. The name Maulbronn (Mule Fountain) derives from a legend. Monks seeking a suitably watered site for their monastery considered it a sign from God when one of their mules discovered and drank at a spring. The Kloster is also known for inventing the Maultasche, a kind of large ravioli. The monks thought that by coloring the meat filling green by adding parsley and wrapping it inside a pasta pocket, they could hide it from God on fasting days. Today the Maultasche is the cornerstone of Swabian cuisine. An audio guide in English is available.