A Little Slice of Bavaria in the Middle of Michigan

Not every historic place is a ruin or a museum — some are living, breathing towns that have leaned all the way into their heritage. The best example in Michigan is Frankenmuth, a small town about 90 minutes north of Detroit that looks and feels like a Bavarian village lifted straight out of Germany and set down in the Saginaw Valley.

The history is real. Frankenmuth (“Franconian courage”) was founded in 1845 by a group of German Lutheran immigrants from Bavaria who came as missionaries to the Native peoples of the region and to build a German farming community. For generations it remained a quiet, deeply German town. Then, over the 20th century, the community made a clever choice: rather than let that heritage fade, they celebrated it, rebuilding their downtown in traditional Bavarian Fachwerk (timber-framed) architecture, complete with a glockenspiel clock tower that chimes and puts on a figurine show.

Today Frankenmuth is one of Michigan’s most-visited towns, and it’s genuinely charming. Its two enormous family-style restaurants — Zehnder’s and the Bavarian Inn — serve world-famous all-you-can-eat chicken dinners and together feed millions of people a year, making them among the largest restaurants in the country. The town throws one of America’s biggest Bavarian festivals each summer, and the Covered Bridge over the Cass River is a beloved landmark. And just outside the historic district sits the world’s largest Christmas store, Bronner’s.