It is difficult to imagine cities so different and so similar to each other as Munich and Nuremberg. As major centers of culture and industry in Bavaria, they play a similar role in relation to the entire country. When talking about the history of Germany, one cannot remain silent about any of them. Both cities are closely associated with the Holy Roman Empire. Occupying an advantageous position at the intersection of trade routes, they developed rapidly in the Middle Ages; unlike other German cities, they successfully defended their liberties, almost simultaneously experienced decline and were unanimously revived after the horrors of the Thirty Years' War and the Second World War. Strikingly different in appearance and in essence, Munich and Nuremberg managed to “preserve” their own history, although they each did it in their own way.