Hanover is sometimes called the city of fairs and gardens. Green areas cover 20% of its area, and the local fair attracts thousands of exhibitors and buyers from around the world every year. The city also boasts a nice, mainly medieval Old Town and a powerful, neo-Gothic town hall built in the early twentieth century.
Like many other German cities, Hanover suffered greatly as a result of the bombing during World War II. Famous for its beautiful palaces, the city has been rebuilt and today impresses tourists with its atmosphere and beautiful buildings.
The Old Town is concentrated around the market square, at which stands the Old Town Hall and the City Church. Around are the quarters of carefully restored, mainly Gothic tenement houses with numerous churches built from the 14th to the 18th century. The culmination of urban construction is the building of the New Town Hall standing on a drained, swampy area with several ponds. Unfortunately, most of the palaces that Hanover was famous for did not survive the war. Today, only two of them can be seen, Leineschloss and Wangenheimpalais.
However, Hanover is still recognized as the German capital of gardens. The most important of them is the Royal Garden extending over an area of over 130 ha. It consists of three independent parts decorated in French and English style.
