Hotels in Jena, Germany

Jena, a city of Thuringia, is an industrial city best known for the foundation of the Zeiss in 1846, a company that is still very important for the production of optical instruments and precision lenses. Jena was the cradle of German Romanticism and is also remembered for a famous battle of 1806 where Napoleon was defeated by the Prussian army. Between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century its university was a meeting place for intellectuals as the Wilhelm brothers, Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis, and among teachers there was also Schiller, so that the University in the early twentieth century was named Friedrich-Schiller-Universität.

The sightseeing tour of the city can only start from the market square, overlooked by houses with beautiful facades including the Gohre, which is now a museum. The Church of St. Michael is one of the greatest churches from the late-Gothic German period: also Martin Luther preached here. The historical town hall, Historisches Rathaus, on the Marktplatze as well, is famous for the Schnapphans, an astronomical clock on an octagonal tower. The JenTower, called Keksrolle, is the symbol of Jena: 159 meters high, now occupied by a shopping mall.