Bayreuth is a medium-sized town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of Upper Franconia and has a population of 72,148 (2015). It is world-famous for its annual Bayreuth Festival.

The town is best known for its association with the composer Richard Wagner, who lived in Bayreuth from 1872 until his death in 1883. Wagner's villa, "Wahnfried", was constructed in Bayreuth under the sponsorship of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was converted after World War II into a Wagner Museum. In the northern part of Bayreuth is the Festival Hall, an opera house specially constructed for and exclusively devoted to the performance of Wagner's operas. The premieres of the final two works of Wagner's Ring Cycle; the cycle as a whole; and of Parsifal took place here.

Every summer, Wagner's operas are performed at the Festspielhaus during the month-long Richard Wagner Festival, commonly known as the Bayreuth Festival. The Festival draws thousands each year and has persistently been sold out since its inauguration in 1876. Currently, waiting lists for tickets can stretch for 10 years or more.

Owing to Wagner's relationship with the then unknown philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the first Bayreuth festival is cited as a key turning point in Nietzsche's philosophical development. Though at first an enthusiastic champion of Wagner's music, Nietzsche ultimately became hostile, viewing the festival and its revellers as symptom of cultural decay and bourgeois decadence - an event which led him to turn his eye upon the moral values esteemed by society as a whole - "Nietzsche clearly preferred to see Bayreuth fail than succeed by mirroring a society gone wrong."

Museums:

• The Richard Wagner Museum at Wahnfried House was the residence of Richard Wagner and his family's home until 1966. Since 1976 it has been a museum with attached national archives and a research centre for the Richard Wagner Foundation in Bayreuth
• The Jean Paul Museum in the former residence of Richard Wagner's daughter, Eva Chamberlain, with autographs, first editions of works, portraits and other pictorial material
• The Franz Liszt Museum in the house where Franz Liszt died, with about 300 photographs, scripts and printed papers from the collection of the Munich pianist, Ernst Burger, which were bought by the town of Bayreuth. In addition there is a Stummklavier, made by the Ibach company of Haus Wahnfried, letters and first editions of Franz Liszt. Biographic information boards, a mould of the font from Liszt's birthplace Raiding, Austria and Liszt busts by Antonio Galli enhance the collection. Visits are accompanied by the music of Franz Liszt
• The Historical Museum in the Old Latin School on Kirchplatz. On the ground floor it portrays the history and development of Bayreuth from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century with a model of the town in the year 1763. On the first floor are divisions covering the art and cultural history of Bayreuth's margravial period (17th and 18th centuries). Another division portrays arts and crafts in Bayreuth and the surrounding area with examples of faience pottery, glass products from the Fichtelgebirge and stone pottery from Creußen. Painting, crafts, and early industrial artefacts from the Biedermeier period and the late 19th century round off a visit to the museum
• The Museum of Art in the Old Town Hall which contains the Helmut and Constanze Meyer Art Foundation, the Georg Tappert collection and the archives and collection of Caspar Walter Rauh. The collections contain key works from the 20th century. They also include the Little Poster Museum (formerly a museum on its own, the collection was integrated into the Museum of Art in 2012) and the British American Tobacco's Historical Collection.
• The German Typewriter Museum with a collection of over 400 historic typewriters from the Research and Training Centre for Shorthand and Word Processing in Bayreuth
• A branch of the Bavarian State Painting Collection was opened in the New Palace in August 2007. 80 works from Dutch and German painters of the late 17th century and 18th century are displayed.
• The Archaeological Museum in the Italian Building of the New Palace was founded in 1827 by the Historic Society. Its eight exhibition rooms include artefacts such as New Stone Age stone axes, 80 pottery jars from the Hallstatt era and Celtic bronze jewellery. The discoveries on display, which all come from eastern Upper Franconia, especially Franconian Switzerland and the region around Bayreuth, date from the Old Stone Age to the Middle Ages. In the experimental field there is a reconstructed loom, a rock drill and an original Schiebemühle.
• Maisel's Brewery and Cooper's Museum, which teaches everything about the production of Weizen beer on a 2,400 m² (25,833 sq ft) layout, making it the largest brewery in the world, not least due to its collection of over 5,500 beer glasses and mugs).
• The Upper Franconia Prehistory Museum portrays the history of life in Upper Franconia since the beginning of the world. Exhibitions are constantly changing; currently the life-size dinosaurs attract especial interest.
• Bayreuth Football Museum (Altstadt-Kult-Museum of SpVgg Bayreuth)
• The Bayreuth of Wilhelmina Museum in the New Castle
• Fire Brigade Museum
• Iwalewa House, the Africa Centre of the University of Bayreuth
• Johann Baptist Graser School Museum
• Catacombs of the Bayreuth Aktien Brewery
• Margravial state rooms and collection of Bayreuth faiences in the New Castle
• Museum of Agricultural Tools and Equipment
• Lindenhof Natural History Museum
• Richard Wagner Gymnasium School Museum
• Wilhelm Leuschner Memorial
• Wo Sarazen Art

Buildings:

• The Spitalkirche
• The Hermitage (Eremitage)
• Thiergarten Hunting Lodge (Jagdschloss Thiergarten)
• New Palace (Neues Schloss) and court garden, seat of the margraves from 1753
• St. Georgen Castle (Ordensschloss St. Georgen)
• St. Georgen Church (Ordenskirche St. Georgen)
• St. John's Parish Church (St. Johannis)
• Colmdorf Castle
• Rollwenzelei with Jean Paul's study (Dichterstube)
• Old Palace and castle chapel of Our Dear Lady (Altes Schloss)
• Victory Tower (Siegesturm)
• Spital Church (Spitalkirche)
• Church of the Holy Spirit (Stadtkirche Heilig Dreifaltigkeit)
• Stift church (Stiftskirche)
• Birken Castle
• The Goldener Anker hotel
• Baroque parks:
• Hermitage Park, former seat of the margraves, outside the inner town
• Castle and park of Fantaisie, in Eckersdorf (vicinity of Bayreuth. 7 km (4 mi) west)
• Sanspareil Park, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Bayreuth
• University Botanical Gardens
• Old building of the Klinikum Bayreuth, now used as the "load-balancing" branch of the Bundesarchiv (Lastenausgleichsarchiv Bayreuth) mainly dealing with records of displaced Germans expelled from conquered areas of Eastern and Central Europe